By Melodie Woerman
Dioceses and churches across the Episcopal Church have announced activities marking Juneteenth – June 19 – which commemorates the date in 1865 that federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to ensure that all enslaved people in the state were freed.
This came more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863, but the order couldn’t be enforced everywhere until after the end of the Civil War on April 9, 1865.
Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day, became a national holiday when President Joe Biden signed legislation on June 17, 2021, making it the first new national holiday adopted since 1983, when Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created.
While Texas and more than two dozen other states already observed Juneteenth as a state holiday, interest in a federal holiday was renewed in the summer of 2020, during months of racial reckoning that followed the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and a number of other Black people. On June 13, Biden hosted a concert on the White House lawn to celebrate Juneteenth and to mark Black Music Month.
As the home of Juneteenth, the city of Galveston provides a virtual Juneteenth Freedom Walk Tour, where participants can learn about five historic sites in the city and their importance to the holiday.
On a reflection entitled “Juneteenth and the Call to Remember” on the Episcopal Church website, the Rev. Willis Foster Sr., canon for diversity in the Diocese of Southern Virginia, and Edna Johnston, a member of the Church of the Holy Comforter in Richmond, Va., and the principal of History Matters, note that it is important for Episcopalians to mark this holiday.
“Juneteenth reminds us that we must try to understand and talk about American slavery and its legacies. This includes talking and teaching about slavery in our history books, churches, and political discourse. It means remembering the histories of those who were enslaved here in North America and those who have continued to experience and confront racial injustice.”
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