The History and Meaning of Juneteenth

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After 155 years, Juneteenth, a celebration of the emancipation of enslaved Americans, is being acknowledged as a holiday by corporations and state governments across the country. Today, we consider why, throughout its history, Juneteenth has gained prominence at moments of pain in the struggle for black liberation in America. We also ask: What does freedom mean now? Guest: Dr. Daina Ramey Berry, a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily Background reading: In a project examining the history and import of Juneteenth, we ask: What is freedom in America?Opal Lee, 93, an activist and lifelong Texan, has campaigned to make June 19 a national holiday for years. This is her vision for honoring the emancipation of enslaved Americans.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From New York Times, I'm Michael Babaro. This is Daily.
0:09.4	Today, it began with a government promise 155 years ago that in some ways has yet to be fulfilled.
0:19.7	Professor Diner Raimi Berry on the history of June 10th and what it means in this moment. It's Friday, June 19th.
0:35.6	Dr. Barry, take us back to June 19th, 1865 and what happened that day?
0:41.5	For most enslaved people in Texas, it was a typical day. They got up, they went to the fields,
0:49.3	or picking cotton, or producing sugar, and working just as they always had done.
0:55.6	This was two months after the Civil War ended and two and a half years after the Mancipation
1:00.7	Proclamation that President Lincoln issued on January 1st of 1863. Although they were fighting for
1:07.9	their freedom, although they were still running away and committing acts of day-to-day resistance
1:12.9	on plantations, enslaved people were not actually living in freedom. But on that day, June 19th of 1865,
1:23.1	General Gordon Granger of the Union Army galloped into Galveston with 2,000 other individuals and came
1:30.6	and gave a proclamation. The people of Texas Granger said are informed that in accordance with
1:38.4	a proclamation from the executive of the United States, slaves are free.
1:46.8	This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters
1:54.2	and slaves. And the connection here to four existing between them becomes that between employer
2:03.7	and higher laborer. Formally enslaved people when they heard the news that slavery was over in Texas
2:15.9	celebrated. It was a day of great Jubilee. They danced, they sang, they fled their plantations.
2:30.1	It was them claiming their freedom. It was them going out and embracing it. It was impacking their
2:37.6	bags and leaving. It was them hugging their loved ones and saying, we're free, we're finally free.
2:53.6	In the 1930s, the Workers Progress Administration interviewed formerly enslaved people and asked
2:59.6	them to tell their stories of slavery. Many recalled June 19th, particularly those that had been
3:05.9	enslaved in Texas. We learned decades later of their experience and their response to when they
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