Joe Biden promulgated, Thursday, June 17, a law creating a new federal holiday, the “Juneteenth” – contraction of June and 19 in English -, to commemorate the emancipation of the last slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865. “Juneteenth symbolizes both the long and difficult night of slavery and submission, and the promise of a better day”, he said during a ceremony at the White House, alongside his Vice President Kamala Harris, of Indian and Jamaican descent.
Slavery, officially abolished in December 1865, is a “Moral stain” and “America’s original sin”, recalled the Democratic president. By making June 19 a public holiday, “All Americans can feel the power of this day and learn from our history, celebrate progress and see the distance traveled”.
But, he pointed out, the emancipation of black American slaves was “Only the beginning” efforts to “Keep the promise of racial equality”. “We must continue towards this promise because we are not there yet”, assured Mr. Biden, while the black minority (13% of the population) still suffers from discrimination in terms of employment, housing or access to the health system.
Moment of union
In a rare moment of union, Republicans and American Democrats had approved, Wednesday, June 16 in Congress, the creation of this new federal holiday. “This day represents freedom”, had launched the elected Democrat of the House of Representatives Sheila Jackson Lee, one of the parliamentarians who carried the bill to make Juneteenth a public holiday. The House definitively adopted this text by 415 votes to 14, with the support of the Democratic and Republican leaders. The day before, it had been unanimously approved in the Senate.
In front of the old photo of a black man with a torn back, Sheila Jackson Lee, an elected African-American, had, in front of the hemicycle, mentioned the ” long trip “ traveled until this vote. “But we are here today, free to vote in favor of Juneteenth as a national independence day, a federal holiday for America”, did she say. “Recognizing and learning from past mistakes is essential to move forward”, wrote Republican Senator John Cornyn, who had brought this bill with her.
These two parliamentarians represent Texas in Congress. It was in this vast state that the last slaves had learned, on June 19, 1865, that they were henceforth free.
“A story marred by brutality and injustice”
President Abraham Lincoln had in fact freed slaves from their bondage two and a half years earlier, by signing, on 1er January 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation. But, during the Civil War (1861-1865), slavery had continued in the Southern Confederate States. The leader of the Confederate Army, Robert Lee, had signed his surrender on April 9, 1865. And it had taken more than two months for the news to reach the small Texas town of Galveston on June 19.
Juneteenth was already a public holiday in some US states, including Texas, but it had not so far been marked with a federal date. Calls to make it a nationwide holiday had redoubled after the murder of George Floyd, an African-American man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2020.
This date of June 19 “Reminds us of a history marred by brutality and injustice, and it reminds us of the responsibility we have to build a future of progress for all, which honors the ideal of equality” from the United States, said Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
