America and the world celebrates Juneteenth National Independence Day June 19 2022 – 11th Annual US National Holiday
AGN.News Team
June 19, 2022
WASHINGTON (AGN.News) – President Joe Biden signed into law the creation of Juneteenth National Independence Day as a national holiday to be celebrated each year on June 19. As a national holiday, Juneteenth will be the 11th annual US federal national holiday.
On today, Sunday, June 19th, the US is celebrating the 2022 Juneteenth holiday, titled the Juneteenth National Independence Day. In communities all across the United States and around the world, people are in a festive mood as they rejoice with tears of joy. They recognize what their ancestors only dreamed of, recognition as citizens of the United States with all the rights and privileges guaranteed by the United States Constitution.
What is Juneteenth?
Juneteenth celebrates the end of non-penal slavery on June 19, 1865. This date marked the official end of slavery in America. On June 19, 1865 over 2,000 Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas to inform the last remaining slaves and plantation owners that slavery in America was over, ended.
Juneteenth is an annual holiday celebrating the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States for 246 years.
Originating in Texas, Juneteenth is now celebrated annually in this 21st century on the 19th of June throughout the United States as a national holiday.
Why Juneteenth is important to America
That was not the end of slavery in America. The end of slavery had to wait another 6 months when the Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution would abolish slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.
The amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the required 27 of the then 36 states on December 6, 1865, and proclaimed on December 18, 1865. Then came a something new… an unprecedented kind of national “racism”.
General Richard Henry Pratt (1840-1924) was an American military officer who founded and was longtime superintendent of the influential Carlisle Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
General Pratt is associated with the first recorded use of the word “racism,” which he used in 1902 to criticize racial segregation. He understood that true freedom from “racism” for all could only come when all people are free of “racism”, freedom from racism breeds national prosperity.
When US slavery ended, the end to Civil War, and Reconstruction… it was time for economic prosperity throughout America. A time for everyone to learn from and move on from the notion that racial oppression and the denial of rights could go on indefinitely.
Juneteenth promotes America’s healing
After 156 years of resistance, African Americans now have reasons to celebrate the “national recognition” of their “freedom from slavery” as Americans. Now, Juneteenth offers them a chance to celebrate every year.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas said it best, “Now more than ever, we need to learn from our history and continue to form a more perfect union.”
Making Juneteenth a national holiday is a positive step in the healing of what some call “America’s racial wounds” or as others call it, “America’s racial sins” or “America’s Original Sin”.
Trying to keep alive an outdated system of racial oppression and denial of US rights to African Americans brought on by the lack of knowledge of constitutional rights or misunderstanding and misapplication of the stated fact that “all men are created equal” as the U.S. Constitution so well expressed, only brings hardships to all citizens.
Juneteenth celebrates America’s equality
The Preamble to the United States Constitution confirms the value of all citizens stating, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
With this message in mind, the Chief Executive of the United States, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation affirming the value of all Americans on September 22, 1862.
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
Its third paragraph reads: That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
The President’s Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the Civil War. The President demonstrated the value and liberty of all United States citizens.
Juneteenth commemorates this value as Union Army Major General Gordon Granger, under orders of President Lincoln, with over 2,000 federal troops, announcing federal orders at Ashton Villa on the corner of 24th Street and 2328 Broadway Street in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, proclaiming that all slaves in Texas (and all America) were free, two and a half years after Proclamation 95.
General Granger’s 2,000 plus federal troops marched through Galveston reading General Order No. 3 first at the Union Army Headquarters located at Strand Street and 22nd Street, then at the 1861 Custom House and courthouse before marching to the Negro Church on Broadway (renamed Reedy Chapel-AME Church). These troops were in Galveston to enforce the emancipation of slaves. For more information, please go here.
Birth of Juneteenth’s annual holiday
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, first introduced the bill in the spring of 2020 at the height of racial tension in the country following the murder of George Floyd, but they could not garner the support needed. Now, about a year later, in 2021, the bill included 18 GOP co-sponsors.
“It has been a state holiday in Texas for more than 40 years,” Cornyn tweeted. “Now more than ever, we need to learn from our history and continue to form a more perfect union.”
Juneteenth holiday promotes unity.
Juneteenth Holiday is a good beginning as America’s residents, business, and neighborhoods embraces cultural equality, diversity, inclusion, equity, unity and support for positive-minded and inspiring people as well as historic business-friendly communities.
Now, on Sunday, June 19, 2022 (and Monday, June 20th), America celebrates the Juneteenth National Independence Day with parades, picnics, festivals, speeches, dinners, music, song and dance, and much more. The world has joined in the celebration as America takes the lead and tone as a freedom loving country.
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