Members Commemorate Juneteenth: A Day of Celebration and Solemn Remembrance

June 18, 2015

On Jan. 1, 1863, Pres. Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The Civil War didn’t end for another two-and-a-half years. And even then, many southern states refused to recognize the Union’s victory and rejected freeing the African Americans they held in slavery.



On June 19, 1865, soldiers of the Union Army arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce slavery’s official abolition; they read the Emancipation Proclamation. As word spread, celebration began and thousands of Black Americans who were held captive in the misery of chattel slavery rejoiced in Galveston’s streets. The day became known as Juneteenth.



One hundred and fifty years later many continue the observance, making it the country’s oldest commemoration of slavery’s extirpation. That said, there’s a real effort to develop greater awareness of Juneteenth, its importance, origins and why as a nation, the United States must acknowledge the painful legacy of slavery. This year’s commemorations were a stark reminder of just how deep are the nation’s unhealed wounds, with the massacre at Charleston’s Emmanuel AME Church occurring just two days before Juneteenth.



In Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Medical Center workers Dinesha Proctor and Renee Neal joined a June 20 rally, march and festival to draw attention to cases of Black women and girls killed or brutalized by police. The event also marked Juneteenth’s 150th anniversary.



“I think this is a good idea for us to come out today,” said Neal, an oxygen therapy technician. “We need to remember the women.”



Sponsored by the organization Say Her Name, the downtown rally was followed by a march and festival near the site of April’s uprising after Freddie Gray’s death. Called Rekia’s Rally and Natasha’s Jubilee, the event called attention to the cases of Rekia Boyd and Natasha McKenna; Boyd was a 22-year-old Chicago woman shot in 2012 by an off-duty police officer and McKenna died this year in the custody of the Fairfax County, VA police after being repeatedly tasered while she was restrained. Some carried signs bearing the names of the Charleston victims and called for an end to racist attacks.



New York City retiree Alma Pendleton says commemorating Juneteenth is also critical if we are to heal the deep wound of slavery. “It’s really essential that we educate our nation about slavery. It’s what’s lacking in our history. There are people who feel things have gotten better, but so much still needs to be done,” she says. Pendleton has participated in Juneteenth commemorations in Coney Island, Brooklyn which include a ceremony of carrying libations and flowers to the ocean in honor of the ancestors.



In Upstate New York, 1199ers participated in annual Juneteenth celebrations held June 13 in Buffalo. “It shows the city of Buffalo that there is unity,” says Kaleida Gates retiree Doris Crawl, who helped set up voter registration. “It shows that 1199 is not just concerned about healthcare. We are Black and white and all kinds of people marching together. We bring all kinds of information into our communities.”