What is Juneteenth? Pittsburgh historian explains

[00:00:01]For many Americans, freedom is something we celebrate each 4th of July, recognizing our nation's independence from Great Britain. But for others in this country, independence would not come for close to a century later.

[00:00:13]>> Most modern textbooks mark the abolition of slavery in the United States with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. But the fight for freedom actually continued on for a few more years, leading to a day we now recognize as Juneteenth.

[00:00:27]>> While the full story behind how this country's African-American ancestors shed their shackles has gone unspoken in many classrooms, >> students not not only need to know the history of the United States, they need to understand that it is also part of their history, even if they themselves are not African-American.

[00:00:46]>> Juneteenth is something that's always covered in Dr. Robin Chapdelaine's classroom.

[00:00:51]>> We will never understand the plight of African-Americans today in US society if we don't take seriously our past and the struggle of African-Americans.

[00:01:07]>> January 1st, 1863. Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation takes effect, freeing those enslaved in the Confederate States. Union soldiers spread the news by reading the proclamation on plantations as they marched across the South. But in some states, that message wouldn't be heard for more than 2 years.

[00:01:26]>> If it wasn't for the presence of the Union Army in Texas in 1865, then who knows how long slavery would could have continued to exist.

[00:01:36]>> June 19th, 1865. Union soldiers arrive in Texas, announcing the estimated quarter of a million people still enslaved in the state were free.

[00:01:46]>> So, Juneteenth became that Texas thing that spread throughout the rest of the country and um and sort of took on the past um freedom celebrations of Haiti, the slave trade, the British West Indies, and so forth, and sort of wrapped all that up into this black freedom celebration.

[00:02:14]>> However, the complete reckoning of slavery would not come for another 6 months when the 13th Amendment was signed into law. But with freedom came a new battle for equality. A fight that continues today. Now with a renewed focus on the inequality of the criminal justice system.

[00:02:31]>> 1/4 of all people incarcerated in the world are right here in in the United States.

[00:02:37]Um and yet we are looking at Juneteenth as a day of freedom. We have to also be reminded that we are not just acknowledging what had taken place in the past, but what is current in our society.

[00:02:54]>> But with the most recent civil rights movement across the nation over the past half dozen years, historians believe for the first time in a long time people are listening and hungry to hear more about a history that has long been rewritten.

[00:03:09]Juneteenth was recognized in several states for many years, but it didn't become an official federal holiday until 5 years ago when President Joe Biden signed it into law in 2021.