Juneteenth

Transcript: Juneteenth

Four years ago, many Americans learned that they were getting an extra day off work. Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19, marks the anniversary of the end of slavery in the United States and became a federal holiday in June 2021. Until then, few Americans had even heard about this holiday.

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. On paper, the order freed all slaves across the United States. But because America was fighting its Civil WarBürgerkrieg zwischen den Nord- und Südstaaten (1861–1865)Civil War, Lincoln could not enforce sth.etw. durchsetzenenforce this in the Confederacy, a bloc of Southern states that had secede from sth.sich von etw. abspaltenseceded from the rest of the country, or Union.

After the war ended with a Union victory, in April 1865, it took until June 19, 1865, for Union troops to enter Texas and share the news of the Emancipation Proclamation with the 250,000 slaves in the state.

The National Museum of African American History calls Juneteenth “our country’s second Independence Day.” The first is July 4, 1776 – when the United States declared its independence from Britain. Despite Juneteenth’s importance, it took more than a century and a half for the holiday to become mainstreametabliertmainstream. 

In the immediate years following the Civil War, a period known as Reconstruction, the federal government made progress in assisting former slaves. Political reforms helped them gain a gain a footingFuß fassenfooting as full citizens. But after about a decade, there was a conservative backlashRückschlagbacklash, which undid steps toward equality. This culminategipfeln, einen Höhepunkt erreichenculminated in what is known as the Jim Crow Era. 

Jim Crow began in 1877 and ended in 1964, when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. It was a time marked by the segregation(Rassen)Trennungsegregation of Black and white Americans. Black people were forced to attend worse schools and drink from worse water fountains. lawmakerAbgeordnete(r)Lawmakers also introduced restrictions making it nearly impossible for Black people to vote. Widespread and violent state repression meant that they were unable to secure equal rights. Lynching by white supremacistrechtsextrem, rassistischwhite supremacist terror groups such as the Ku Klux Klan was common.

Throughout all of this, many Black Americans celebrated Juneteenth, particularly in Texas. But it took the 2020 murder of George Floyd for most white Americans to take notice – and for the federal government to grant Juneteenth the recognition it deserves, with former President Joe Biden signing a bill on June 17, 2021, to make it an official holiday. 

Despite his attacks on diversity efforts, President Donald Trump has so far given no indication that he intends to cancel Juneteenth.