Juneteenth made federal holiday: Locals, educators talk day to mark ‘freedom of everyone is this country’

For Jasmine Nicholas of DeKalb, Juneteenth is more than the newest federal holiday, it’s “a way to celebrate African American and Black history,” she said.

Nicholas and her husband, Damien Nicholas, are the owners of 829 Creations. Through their business, they sell customized T-shirts, home décor and accessories, such as mugs, socks and pillowcases.

This year, to celebrate Juneteenth, 829 Creations is selling two different T-shirt designs, one that reads “Juneteenth: Free-ish since 1865” and another which proudly displays “Unapologetically Black.” For Nicholas, the merchandise is a way to honor the day and spread a message in the community.

“T-shirts are an easy way to show your involvement,” she said. “It catches others’ attention and their eyes, and it lets you display who you are, your interests and what you’re proud of.”

Nicholas, who started selling the products before President Joe Biden made the day into a federal holiday Thursday, said the initiative is one way “to get the word out about Juneteenth.”

“We’re selling T-shirts to help boost the awareness of the holiday and to let people in the community know that there are other people celebrating with them,” she said. “I’m so glad that the holiday has gotten some notoriety because it’s a part of history that’s diminished and not taught in schools. Being able to celebrate the freedom of everyone in this country is a very positive thing.”

Juneteenth, a history

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas learned of their freedom by Union soldiers two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed and two months after the Confederacy had surrendered. The day is also known as Emancipation Day and Freedom Day. The enslaved were not fully free, however, until later in the year when the 13th Amendment was ratified.

The day, recognized for generations by Black Americans but not marked as a federal holiday like the Fourth of July, for instance, has entered more widely into the mainstream in past years, amplified by a summer of nationwide protests and racial reckoning renewed in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis by former police officer Derek Chauvin, and in 2021, as governing bodies sought to formalize the holiday.

“If people do not know the history, then the holiday seems manufactured, when in reality the holiday commemorates both an event – the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation to final holdouts – and the end of a horrific, shameful era of American history,” said Joe Flynn, associate director for academic affairs at Northern Illinois University’s Center for Black Studies. “This can be confusing for some since Independence Day has always been observed as July 4, 1776. But as the great Frederick Douglass asked, ‘What is the Fourth of July to African Americans?’ since at that time, independence was not granted to them.”

Often celebrated at first with church picnics and speeches, the holiday spread across the nation and internationally as Black Texans moved elsewhere.

The vast majority of states recognize Juneteenth as a holiday or a day of recognition, like Flag Day, and most states hold celebrations. Juneteenth is a paid holiday for state employees in Texas, New York, Virginia and Washington, and hundreds of companies give workers a day off for Juneteenth.

Anne Marie Edwards, director of NIU’s Center for Black Studies describes Juneteenth as “a happy occasion, a day of emancipation, freedom and a celebration of endurance, strength and perseverance.”

“I think a lot of emphasis has been placed on being American and celebrating the Fourth of July,” she said. “We have to acknowledge that not everybody was included in that Fourth of July. It was not our holiday or our day of freedom, and that’s the reason why we celebrate Juneteenth on June 19. It’s a day of learning, healing, growing and understanding what we can do as a country, as a community. It is a time of cultural expression and education.”

Celebrating Juneteenth

On Wednesday, June 16, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed House Bill 3922, officially recognizing Juneteenth as National Freedom Day in Illinois.

The new law will take effect Jan. 1, 2022, and will make June 19 a paid day off for all state employees and a school holiday when it falls on a weekday.

To celebrate the holiday, the state will lower all flags to half-staff on June 18 and a Juneteenth flag will fly over the Capitol in Springfield.

Also on Wednesday, in Washington, D.C., the House voted 415-14 to make Juneteenth the 12th federal holiday. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law Thursday, June 17. Juneteenth will be the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created in 1983.

Rev. Joe Mitchell, pastor at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in DeKalb, said the city’s first-ever Juneteenth celebration was supposed to take place in 2020 but was later canceled because of capacity and distancing concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“So we put it on hold last year and came back this year and now we’re prepared to do it this year,” Mitchell said.

To celebrate the Juneteenth holiday locally, New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, the NIU Center for Black Studies and B.L.L.A.C.K. Inc. NFP will host a community Juneteenth celebration and block party. The event is scheduled from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 19, at the corner of Hillcrest and Blackhawk, where the old Campus Cinema once stood, in the Annie Glidden North neighborhood.

The event will include music, food, a mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinic, voter registration and social services information, along with other activities.

For more information, to register as a vendor for the event or to give monetary donations for the event, visit www.newhopeofdekalb.org/juneteenth.

Mitchell said he views this event as an opportunity to better unify the community.

“I think that the more that you know about each other, the more that you know about particular cultures, I think it builds tolerance and I think it helps to unify people,” Mitchell said. “And so that’s really what we hope comes out of this event.”

A day to educate and unite

Mitchell said he thinks the DeKalb Juneteenth block party will be an opportunity to teach the community about the holiday and American history.

“If we’re honest, there’s a lot of things in our history that are not taught in school, and that’s from high school to college level. I think this is a great opportunity for the community to come out that don’t know [about Juneteenth] to learn and understand what this is, what this is really about,” Mitchell said. “I actually believe the more people are informed, the more knowledge they have, the more history that they have that’s part of who they are, I think that just makes them a much more better-rounded person.”

Over the past few weeks as Juneteenth approached, debate has reignited among educators and politicians across the country scrutinizing how racial history is taught in school, what is omitted and what’s emphasized.

Flynn recommends people interested in Juneteenth and Black Studies to take a class at NIU, such as the university’s “Racism in American Society” course.

“The saying goes, if you don’t know your past then you don’t know your future,” he said. “I would revise that to say if you don’t know your past then you don’t know your future, nor your present.”

Sycamore District 427 Superintendent Steve Wilder said that celebrating Juneteenth is important “because it was a milestone in the end of legalized slavery in some of the states in our country.”

“While it didn’t end slavery entirely in the United States, it was a turning point in our nation’s view on slavery,” he said. “Every great endeavor has a beginning, and I believe this date was one of those beginning steps toward recognizing the value, respect and rights of all people in the United States.”

Billy Hueramo, Elementary Curriculum Coordinator at the DeKalb School District, also said that teaching about Juneteenth in schools is important. He said that people can celebrate Juneteenth locally “by embracing it, by becoming more educated on the history of Juneteenth and understanding what it means culturally to African Americans in our country.”

To teach the youth about Juneteenth, Edwards recommends three children’s books: “Juneteenth for Mazie” by Floyd Cooper, “All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom” by Angela Johnson and “Juneteenth” by Drew Nelson and Vaunda Micheaux Nelson.

“Juneteenth is not often taught in history books or included in K-12 education,” Edwards said. “But Juneteenth is a phenomenal educational occasion. It’s a time for us to get together, have conversations, eat good food and educate the next generations about not only our ancestors’ struggle during slavery, but also their resiliency.”

Lynnea Erickson Laskowski, communication and prevention services director at Safe Passage, DeKalb County’s domestic violence and sexual assault crisis center, described Juneteenth as “an important holiday to honor the resilience of Black people in America and to understand how deeply entrenched the roots of slavery are in our country.”

“Juneteenth is a day of celebration and of reflection,” she said. “For Black Americans, Juneteenth is a day to celebrate freedom and to honor your ancestors. For white Americans, it’s a reminder how much there is for us to do. It’s a call to action for justice and equity.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.