Dr. Nanika Coor offers suggestions for observing Juneteenth—a pivotal moment in American history.
Juneteenth is a time to commemorate the end of the legal practice of the enslavement of African Americans in the United States. It’s also a time to reflect upon the perseverance, resilience, and collective strength of African Americans in the face of the ongoing struggle for equity and true freedom. Dr. Nanika Coor offers suggestions for observing Juneteenth—a pivotal moment in American history.
Project Parenthood is hosted by Dr. Nanika Coor. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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Hey parents! You're listening to the Project Parenthood podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Nanika Coor, clinical psychologist and respectful parenting therapist. Each week, I’ll introduce you to the same respectful parenting practices that I use to help parents repair and deepen connections with their children. You’ll get tips for cultivating more parental self-compassion, more cooperation from your kids, and more joy, peace, and resilience in your relationship with them.
In today’s episode, I’m talking about Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the end of race-based chattel slavery in the United States, specifically the day that formerly enslaved people in Galveston, Texas learned that they were free. Stick around till the end for tips on how to observe the holiday with your family in ways that honor and uplift Black joy.
On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed into law the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act making Juneteenth a federal holiday. Most white Americans hadn’t heard of Juneteenth until the summer of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, but in the southern and southwestern United States, Juneteenth has been celebrated by Black Americans for over a century.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day when Major General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas and announced the official end of race-based chattel slavery there. This announcement came two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. And though the Union Army had won the Civil War in April 1865 when Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox, VA, Texans were resistant to accepting defeat. So until 2000 Union troops marched into Galveston Bay to enforce the Proclamation, the more than 250,000 people enslaved there didn’t know that they were free.
General Order Number 3 stated:
“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 between employer and hired labor. The freedmen 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.”
The first Juneteenth celebrations are the oldest known celebrations commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, and became more popular as time went on, eventually becoming a state holiday in 1980. As Black people migrated from Texas to other states, they brought their Juneteenth celebrations with them. Historically, commemorating the day can include formal attire, parades, educational programs, music, firecrackers, fun, and coming together with family and with the community. This often takes place along with a cookout featuring barbeque and red-themed food and drink.
Because they aren’t a monolithic group, Black Americans naturally have varying levels of comfort with the swift official and corporate recognition of Juneteenth. On the heels of the Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality in 2020, many American corporations publicly acknowledged that racism does indeed exist—yet little has changed since these acknowledgments.
People have voiced frustration, viewing the making of a national Juneteenth holiday as largely performative—while more pressing issues facing Black Americans remain unaddressed. Declaring Juneteenth a holiday allows those in power to be self-congratulatory without actually making any lasting change that would significantly impact Black American lives for the better. Making enduring changes to hiring, compensation, and promotion practices, for instance, is a better allocation of resources than a day off for federal workers. This legislation was also passed in less than a week, while bills on law enforcement reform, voting rights, and a commission to study reparations remain stalled. Furthermore, there is some dread about Juneteenth being for “everyone” and how that can lead to its meaning becoming watered down, co-opted, commercialized, and commodified by and for non-Black people.
Critics aside, Black proponents of the Juneteenth Act applaud legislation making it a national holiday because 1) the abolition of race-based chattel slavery for millions of enslaved people and Black people’s contribution to their own liberation shouldn’t go unacknowledged; 2) it’s an opportunity for an annual national remembrance of the historical complications and precariousness of Black freedom; and 3) in a country where Blackness is often associated with trauma, suffering, and struggle, it’s a rare opportunity to celebrate progress, joy, and hope for Black Americans.
The Juneteenth holiday is a wonderful opportunity to explore the historical context of the celebration. It’s important that children know that some but not all enslaved people were considered free from bondage on that first Juneteenth. In 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation freed only those enslaved in Confederate states that had not already fallen to the Union Army. Many enslaved in the Union-held Border States of Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri remained so until the 13th amendment was ratified in December 1865.
And while it was critical to expanding freedom to enslaved people, General Order Number 3 contains the roots of current harmful stereotypes about Black Americans as work-averse, disruptive, and hand-out-seeking, and used racist language that foreshadowed the ways that America would continue to hedge on any promise of freedom it extended to the very people whose bodies it exploited to build its great wealth.
After stating that the enslaved would henceforth be “free,” it also goes on to essentially say: “Don’t be loudly celebratory, keep living with your enslavers, keep working for your enslavers (only now for pay), don’t look to the government to help you, and don’t be lazy.” Legal race-based chattel slavery was meeting its end, but white supremacy remained and remains alive and well.
What often goes unmentioned in the revisionist notion that enslaved Africans and their descendants are passive recipients of the freedoms “granted” to them by white saviors are the myriad ways that Black people contributed and continue to contribute to their own liberation. For instance, the 29th Colored Regiment played an integral role in the war effort that brought about their own liberation and saved the Union.
And despite two centuries of bondage, the Reconstruction period following the Civil War (1865-1877) was a period of hope, promise, family reunification, and economic, educational, and political gains for formerly enslaved people. Black people accomplished amazing things as a community and for the country less than a single generation removed from enslavement.
As Black people gained social and political power, Southern whites became enraged, calling for “Redemption”—a return of white supremacy and the restriction of rights for Black Americans. This was the first of the many periods of backlash following any incremental gain in or promotion of Black Freedom in the United States. Thus began the period of the Klu Klux Klan and Jim Crow—race-based terror, lynchings, discrimination, and segregation that would remain in place until the civil rights resistance movements of the 1950s and 60s. Black resistance helped to bring about legislation that ended segregation and Black voter suppression, along with discriminatory employment and housing practices.
While the struggle for Black freedom is a real one, it’s not the only facet of Black life. Through periods of great sadness, Black people have also found ways to choose and find joy through things like art, foodways, entrepreneurship, humor, and community.
This Juneteenth take the opportunity to highlight for your kids the ways in which Black Americans from the first Juneteenth to the present day didn’t give up hope and persevered even in uncertain times.
Let me know how it goes!
Though feelings about Juneteenth as a national holiday are mixed, it’s historically been a holiday centered around celebrating the national and regional cultures, art, food, humanity and tenacity that are American Blackness.
Juneteenth can be a day where all Americans take the time to acknowledge Black resistance, liberation, and joy. As Black Americans, we may experience generational trauma, we may have to withstand anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and racism, and we may have to continue to struggle for true and equal freedom—but we’re here! And there’s a lot to celebrate when it comes to that kind of intergenerational survival and capacity to thrive despite the odds.
I hope that’s helpful! You can learn more about my work with parents at www.brooklynparenttherapy.com and on Instagram at BKPARENTS.
If you have more questions about talking with kids about Juneteenth, or any other parenting questions or stories, leave me a message at (646) 926-3243 and be sure to let me know if it's okay to use your voice on the show. Or, send an email to parenthood@quickanddirtytips.com. And don’t forget to subscribe to Project Parenthood on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Catch you next week!
Wygle, B. & St. Clair, G. (Hosts). (2021, June 16). Juneteenth (No. 31) [Audio podcast episode]. In Black History For White People. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/juneteenth/id1514522005?i=1000525687557
Tisby, J. (Host). (2021, June 28). Juneteenth: Reflections on a National Holiday from Jemar Tisby [Audio podcast episode]. In Pass The Mic. The Witness – A Black Christian Collective. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/juneteenth/id1514522005?i=1000525687557
Davis, M. (2020, June 19). National Archives Safeguards Original ‘Juneteenth’ General Order. National Archives News. https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/juneteenth-original-document
(2019, June 19). The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth. National Archives News. The National Museum of African American History and Culture. https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-juneteenth
(2014, February 11). Reconstruction vs. Redemption. National Endowment for the Humanities. https://www.neh.gov/news/reconstruction-vs-redemption