June 19th is Juneteenth, the day our nation commemorates the ending of slavery in America.  It is a day of joy and celebration, but also one for deep reflection. 

After the Continental victory in the Revolutionary War, the Marquis de Lafayette famously remarked “Humanity has won its battle.  Liberty now has a country.”  Yet, that country only protected the liberty of one group of Americans. Another group was imprisoned in a brutal system of slavery and subjugation. 

Less than a century later, that same country tore itself asunder in a different war.  This time, brother fought brother and the soul of the nation stood in the balance.  On September 22, 1862, following the bloody stalemate at Antietam that blunted the Confederacy’s invasion of Maryland, President Abraham Lincoln finally had the resolve to issue his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.  In it, he declared that all persons held as slaves in any of the rebellious states would be, as of January 1, 1863, “thenceforward, and forever free.”  The Proclamation crystalized the war’s focus from the preservation of the Union to the abolition of slavery.  “Common sense, the necessities of the war, to say nothing of the dictation of justice and humanity have at last prevailed.  We shout for joy that we live to record this righteous decree,” declared Fredrick Douglas.

Yet, the Proclamation alone did not end slavery in most areas.  It would take another two and a half long years of civil war until the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox, and even the end of the fighting did not mean immediate freedom for many slaves.  Slaveholders actively sought to prevent knowledge of emancipation from spreading, and enforcement of the Proclamation, especially in more remote areas (such as Texas) was weak and inconsistent. 

Thus, General Gordon Granger traveled to Galveston on June 19, 1865 to coerce Texas to implement freedom.  His General Order No 3 first declared that “all slaves are free,” but it then went further (even than Lincoln).  It promised full equality by proclaiming the “absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves…”  Once news of this order spread, former slaves rejoiced.  Commemorations of the day began the following year.  These celebrations at times also doubled as rallies to support voting for newly freed individuals. 

The failures of Reconstruction and the later advent of Jim Crow forced a temporary suppression of the holiday, but the later rise of the Civil Rights Movement led to its revival.  It helped to unify African Americans in combat of the systematic oppression and discrimination they faced.  Texas was the first state to declare it a formal state holiday in 1979, and by the time it was declared a federal holiday by President Biden in 2021, nearly all other states had followed.

Today, Juneteenth represents several things.  On its surface, it is a celebration of the joy of freedom and resilience of the African American community.  It is also a day for education, including the history of slavery, the oppression of Jim Crow, and that of African American culture and art.  But it is also a day to reflect on how a country that was birthed on ideals of liberty and equality, so long made a sham of them.  It calls for us all to recommit ourselves to these ideals, to actively protect them, and to remind ourselves of the distance that we must still traverse to truly achieve them.

Ryan J. Murphy, Esq. is a partner in the firm’s Lancaster office.