Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination (Topic: Juneteenth Day)

Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination

Juneteenth Day

Recently, United States (US) President Donald Trump gave in to pressure and announced the postponement of his upcoming election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma by a day so that it does not clash with Juneteenth, the day that celebrates the end of slavery in the US.
Trump was criticised for his decision to hold his rally on June 19 in Tulsa, the city that saw some of the worst massacres of black people in US history witnessed in 1921.

Juneteenth is the portmanteau of June and nineteenth and while it is not a federal holiday, it is recognised as a state holiday in over 45 US states.
The day is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the US and is observed on June 19.
It is also known as Emancipation Day or Juneteenth Independence Day.

On January 1, 1863, then-president Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that “all persons held as slaves” within the states in rebellion “are, and henceforward shall be free.” There were some four million slaves at the time.
Even so, over 2.5 years after Lincoln’s proclamation, many slave owners continued to hold their slaves captive by hiding this information from them and holding them slaves for one more harvest season, as per the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and announced the end of both the Civil War and slavery. Since then, Juneteenth has become a largely symbolic date representing freedom for African Americans.

According to the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum, after World War I, Tulsa was recognised for its affluent African American community, which was known as the Greenwood District or the “Black Wall Street”. In June, 1921 a series of events that took place there, “nearly destroyed” the entire Greenwood area.
On May 30, 1921, a black man named Dick Rowland was imprisoned for allegedly assaulting a white woman. After his arrest, an “inflammatory report” published in the May 31 edition of the Tulsa Tribune spurred a confrontation between black and white armed mobs. Some of the members of the mobs armed themselves to protect Rowland, while others wanted to lynch him.
On June 1, 1921 the Greenwood area was looted and burned down by white rioters. The incident referred to as the Tulsa race massacre or the Tulsa race riot, resulted in the deaths of over 300 people and is noted as one of the worst episodes of racial violence in US history.

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the US.
In addition to marking a date of major significance in American history, Juneteenth has always been both a day of remembrance and an opportunity for African-Americans to honor their history and celebrate Black culture.
The day has evolved over the years with people and communities developing their own traditions and customs. For instance, some communities purchased land for celebrating the day, such as Emancipation Park in Houston, Texas. Juneteenth was recognised as an official holiday in Texas on January 1, 1980.
For Texans, the first Juneteenth celebration started from 1866, with community-centric events such as parades, cookouts, prayer gatherings, historical and cultural readings and musical performances.
With the recent killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta by white policemen and the continuing protests over the treatment of African Americans by law enforcement, there is much discussion and introspection about race in America.