What is Juneteenth?
Juneteenth is a holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. Short for “June nineteenth,” Juneteenth is also known as the nation’s second independence day, Freedom Day, and Jubilee Day.
The holiday marks the date when Union troops arrived in Galveston, TX at the end of the Civil War to announce the end of enslavement for more than 250,000 people on June 19, 1865. This news came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.
While Juneteenth has been celebrated by Black Americans since as early as 1866 and recognized as a state holiday in Texas since 1980, it became a national federal holiday on June 17, 2021 in large part due to the tireless activism of Opal Lee, the “Grandmother of Juneteenth.”
Read about Opal Lee’s commitment to the movement to make Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday.
How is Juneteenth Commemorated?
“On that first Juneteenth in Texas, and increasingly so during the ones that followed,” wrote Kris Manjapra, “free people celebrated their resilience amid the failure of emancipation to bring full freedom.”
To learn more about the history of Juneteenth and Emancipation Days, read Kris’s piece, Juneteenth Celebrates Just One of the United States’ 20 Emancipation Days – How Emancipated People Were Kept Unfree Needs to be Remembered, Too.
Today, Juneteenth honors the history and the ongoing struggle for equality and civil rights. It is celebrated with family cookouts, neighborhood festivals and traditions, special faith services, and community programming. The day highlights liberation, reverence for ancestors, and the resilience of African Americans.
Resources to check out this Juneteenth
Juneteenth Home Build: Black History and Hope in South Carolina
Last summer, Interfaith America Team Up partners in Greenville, South Carolina held the Juneteenth Community Build. This Habitat for Humanity project brought neighbors together to create opportunity in a historically Black neighborhood and celebrated unity, resilience, and progress in honor of Juneteenth.
Interfaith America’s Juneteenth Reading List
In honor of Juneteenth, IA colleagues put together a list of books by Black authors whose stories bring joy, educate, and inspire us all.
Interfaith and Pride: LGBTQ+ & BIPOC Inclusion in Faith Spaces Webinar
At the intersection of Pride Month and Juneteenth, Interfaith America and the Interfaith Center of New York hosted a panel discussion uplifting BIPOC faith leaders who create LGBTQ+-affirming places of religious and spiritual expression.
The National Museum of African American History & Culture’s Juneteenth Resources
Explore the historical artifacts, sacred music, spiritually significant foods, and opportunities to get involved in Juneteenth Community Day in this collection of resources about the holiday.
