Honoring Juneteenth - Table Talk: Family Conversations about Current Events

The holiday’s name is a blending of the words “June” and "nineteenth." Juneteenth commemorates the day in history that Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and informed the enslaved Black people there and others in the state that they were free and that the Civil War was finally won. [...] Racism—and eventually a full-fledged ideology of white supremacy— were used to perpetuate and defend slavery and the hierarchy in wealth and opportunity that was created as a result. [...] With the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, enslavement and forced labor were prohibited in the U. [...] The racial and economic oppression that marked the Jim Crow South fueled the mass migration of millions of Black people from the South to the North and West in what became known as the Great Migration, lasting from approximately 1916 to 1970. [...] The Importance of Juneteenth Because Juneteenth commemorates the end of enslavement, it is important to remember and honor the day and focus on Black freedom, resilience, and achievement.