{"id":20063,"date":"2021-06-28T15:36:32","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T15:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/?p=20063"},"modified":"2021-06-28T15:39:02","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T15:39:02","slug":"finally-juneteenth-is-declared-federal-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/junteenth\/","title":{"rendered":"Finally, Juneteenth is declared federal holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director<\/strong><\/p>\n

Juneteenth, or June 19, is now a federal holiday, thanks to an overwhelming Congressional vote and President Biden\u2019s signing it into law in the past two weeks. And it\u2019s a long time coming. The day marks the emancipation of the last enslaved people in America in Galveston, Texas in 1865, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard Juneteenth called Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, and the country’s second Independence Day. It surely is one of the most important anniversaries in our nation’s history.<\/p>\n

As a Jew who has observed Passover my whole life, the holiday based on the Book of Exodus celebrating the liberation of Jews from Egypt after 400 years of enslavement, I also celebrate Juneteenth.<\/p>\n

As I listened to the radio during a road trip, I heard stories about the newly declared federal holiday. I think most importantly, it\u2019s gotten people talking about a conversation America has never really had: truth and reconciliation about the despicable institution of slavery in the United States and its vestiges: a century and a half of Jim Crow segregation, violence, and rampant, entrenched discrimination against African Americans.<\/p>\n

Sadly, this is a conversation too many Americans don\u2019t want to have. Oklahoma passed a law outlawing the teaching of \u201cCritical Race Theory\u201d in state schools. In 2020, President Donald Trump issued an executive order excluding from federal contracts any diversity and inclusion training interpreted as containing \u201cDivisive Concepts,\u201d \u201cRace or Sex Stereotyping,\u201d and \u201cRace or Sex Scapegoating.\u201d<\/p>\n

What even is<\/em> Critical Race Theory? The textbook definition is that CRT acknowledges that the legacy of slavery, segregation, and the imposition of second-class citizenship on Black Americans and other people of color continue to permeate the social fabric of this nation.<\/p>\n

Half a dozen other states are considering bills similar to Oklahoma\u2019s. Fox News and other right wing media outlets have tried to use phony scare tactics to discourage discussion of slavery and its generations-long aftermath. The problem is that unless we have those discussions, we will never reckon with the reality that so much of our nation was built on the backs of enslaved people, including the White House. Refusing to discuss this our history of enslavement has a term too: \u201cWhite Fragility,\u201d defined as white Americans feeling discomfort and defensiveness when confronted with information about racial inequality and injustice. So despite Oklahoma\u2019s law, Biden\u2019s declaring Juneteenth as a federal holiday got people talking\u2014and that\u2019s a good thing.<\/p>\n

I liked hearing about Civil Rights Activist Opal Lee<\/a>, who long advocated for the celebration that started in Galveston to be made a federal holiday.<\/p>\n

It was also interesting to learn that there\u2019s a growing discontent within the African American community with symbolic gestures like declaring a federal holiday marking the end of slavery.<\/p>\n

On that theme, NCL has endorsed HR 40, a U.S. House bill to set up a commission to study the history of enslavement and reparations to families whose relatives were enslaved. Consider these facts about the legacy of slavery:<\/p>\n