The NAACP Vancouver held a virtual event Saturday morning to commemorate Juneteenth, replacing its usual annual celebration with an online presentation for the second year in a row due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The June 19 tradition commemorates the end of slavery in the United States and dates back more than a century, but the date has come to greater prominence in recent years following widespread protests over police brutality sparked by the deaths of Black Americans like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
President Joe Biden signed a bill on Thursday making Juneteenth a federal holiday, and last month Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill making Juneteenth a Washington state holiday. The date is currently observed or recognized in 49 states and the District of Columbia.
“Though many people have celebrated this day for years, this year, 2021, there’s a heightened awareness around the day and its significance,” said Clark College president Karin Edwards.
Edwards opened the virtual event with a discussion of the historical origins of Juneteenth, which marks the day in 1865 when Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and issued General Order No. 3, officially informing the state’s residents that all slaves had been freed in accordance with the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Civil War was still being fought when President Abraham Lincoln signed the proclamation in 1862, and in practice many enslaved people in Confederate states were not freed for at least two more years because slave owners either openly defied the proclamation or kept the news secret, and some moved to Texas to try to remain out of reach of the Union Army.
An estimated 150,000 enslaved people were forced to relocate to Texas during that period, Edwards said. The Civil War officially ended in May 1865, and Granger’s arrival in Texas established a strong enough Union Army presence to enforce the proclamation.
“Thus the last American slaves, all 250,000 of them, were finally free,” Edwards said.
The keynote speaker at Saturday’s event was author and slam poetry artist Dominique Christina, who read several poems and discussed the significance of Juneteenth as an opportunity to celebrate the legacy of Black Americans and the resilience of enslaved people who “survived the unsurvivable.”
She also briefly discussed the mixed feelings among some in the Black community about federal recognition of the holiday due to concerns that the decision felt politically opportunistic. But she said the meaning of the holiday ultimately comes down to the importance of asserting that Black people deserve to celebrate.
“Juneteenth is a celebration, and it’s nuanced and complex because we as a people are complex and nuanced,” Christina said. “But it is a celebration. Whether it has been co-opted or not, misapplied or not, legitimized as a federal holiday or not, it is a celebration. It has always been a celebration.”
Christina’s address prompted an outpouring of supportive and appreciative comments from audiences on Zoom and Facebook. NAACP Vancouver president Jasmine Tolbert relayed a comment from one audience member who said that Christina’s keynote had helped them overcome an initial feeling of cynicism that they had experienced regarding the federal holiday designation.
“This is the only thing that matters: Black people have a right to joy,” Christina said during her address. “They have a right to celebrate. You should be celebrating as often as possible.”
