Bentley Celebrates Juneteenth

On Wednesday, June 23, the provost's office will host a virtual Juneteenth celebration to give Bentley community members a chance to share the significance of the holiday and discuss what the day means to them. Juneteenth is celebrated each year on June 19 to commemorate emancipation and the ending of slavery in the United States following the Civil War. Community members are invited to sign up here to reserve a spot and join the celebration. In recognition of the holiday, below is an essay written by Barbara Paul-Emile, professor of English and the Inaugural Maurice E. Goldman Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences at Bentley. 

Celebrate Juneteenth: Emancipation of the Last African Americans in the Confederacy

By Barbara Paul-Emile

Juneteenth, an amalgamation of June 19th, is also known as Freedom Day and Jubilee Day. It commemorates the arrival of Major General Gordon Granger to Galveston, Texas, on June 19th, 1865, ahead of thousands of Union troops where he read Federal Order #3 declaring that the war had ended and that all previously enslaved people were free:

“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that of employer and hired labor. The freemen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”

What is interesting about this announcement is that it was being made two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation which had become effective on January 1st, 1863. Why did the federal proclamation take so long to take effect in Texas?

Several reasons for this late pronouncement have been offered. Some believe that the federal government did not have the power to enforce its proclamation over a recalcitrant state, hence the delay. Yet others believe that news of the emancipation was deliberately withheld from the black population by slave owners so that they might have the profit from more cotton crops. Whatever the reason, African Americans labored in slavery in Texas for two and a half years after national emancipation was declared.

The general’s announcement produced shock followed by jubilation on the part of the newly freed slaves. The freed men and women wanted to leave the plantations to escape from servitude but they did not know where to go. Indeed, they had nowhere to go. Some were shot and killed as they endeavored to head north. Others tried to escape to neighboring states. But at whatever cost, freedom had come and there was no looking back.

At first, because of segregation, there was much difficulty in finding parks for the yearly celebrations. Former masters forbade the use of public parks and even interrupted private celebrations on church grounds demanding that the celebrants return to work. Over time, the freed men and women saved their own money and in the 1870s purchased 10 acres of land that they named Emancipation Park in the Houston area. It was the only park in the state open to Blacks until the 1950s. Blacks also funded other parks such as Booker T. Washington Park in Mexia, Texas, in 1898.

At Juneteenth gatherings, attendance could run into the thousands. There was a range of festivities: fishing, barbecuing, baseball and rodeos in the west. There was also a focus on self-improvement, and guest speakers were invited to present on the challenges facing African Americans. All of these activities were followed by prayer services. Savory dishes were offered in great abundance as everyone brought their best to the table.   

Over time, Juneteenth festival waned as the pressures on Black lives increased under Jim Crow. Martin Luther King, however, planned his Poor Peoples March in the '60s to start on Juneteenth, and the marchers returned to their home states to revive this holiday. Today, 47 states recognize Juneteenth as a holiday.

Everyone is invited to celebrate Juneteenth in the name of human freedom and in memory of the 250,000 African Americans who achieved their freedom late, two and half years after the national proclamation. Juneteenth honors Black achievement and reminds us that no one is truly free until we are all free.