It’s a national history heavily defined by slavery, the stains of which still resonate today. One of the most seminal days in that journey was June 19, 1865, known for over a century as Juneteenth. Even in Galveston city, the ex-Confederate mayor flouted the Army by forcing the freed people back to work, as historian Elizabeth Hayes Turner details in her comprehensive essay, “Juneteenth: Emancipation and Memory,” in Lone Star Pasts: Memory and History in Texas. Since then, Juneteenth has been enshrined as one of the watershed moments in the broader story of Black liberation in the United States. The momentum appears to be swinging in the right direction, with a greater share of the public more inclined to commemorate Juneteenth than ever before.

Source: The Nation June 15, 2021 14:37 UTC