This reflection was written by our Senior Neighborhood Liaison, Johnique Ison.

“Juneteenth” stands for June 19th, 1865. What makes this day so significant? It is the day that all slaves were said to finally be free. Troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, that day to take control of the state and to free all enslaved people there. On the first Juneteenth, Major General Gordon Granger gave the order that stated: 

“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”

General Orders, Number 3; Headquarters District of Texas, Galveston, June 19, 1865

This was two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. The order was actually written by Major Fredrick Emery, who was from an abolitionist family in Free Kansas. It is important to point this out because many people wanted to paint Gen. Granger as a hero who freed the slaves, but he did it because he had to and not because he actually cared to free the enslaved people. Two months prior to this day, Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered the Appomattox Court House, but slavery had continued. It has been said that communication just always reached Texas late and that’s why they didn’t know until two years later, but history says that a lot of slave owners were packing up and moving to Texas to try to avoid the Union army’s reach. Also, Texas knew about the Emancipation Proclamation, they just had no army to arrive to enforce it. 

Even after Order Number 3 was established, the 250,000 enslaved people in Texas were not free for months or even a year or more later. Some slaves chose to stay with their masters for years after and endured the same treatment during that time as they had under slavery. Masters still had the power to announce slavery ending when they wanted, and some had to wait for a government official and purposely waited it out, while some just waited until the end of harvest. Juneteenth was officially made a federal holiday in 2021, over 150 years after. It wasn’t something that was heavily celebrated in the Louisville area until the last 5 years but now every year there are events all over the city for the whole weekend and a huge festival on the Waterfront/Belvedere. Black people all over are now celebrating what they consider their independence day, the day the fight for real freedom started. The 13th amendment says that slavery is illegal but if you read the whole amendment, are we really really free of slavery? Or did America just find another way to keep slavery legal?