Juneteenth Title 5 US Federal Holiday - A quasi-optional Juneteenth Day of Observance

Juneteenth is the agreed upon date to celebrate the end of chattel slavery in the United States. Juneteenth gets its name because it marks June 19, 1865, when US Union General Gordon Granger, issued his Field Order No. 3. that states:

“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.”

The 7 week U.S. military campaign throughout Texas included several thousand United States Colored Troops, who enforced the order ending chattel slavery, sealed the Texas/Mexican border and confiscated vast quantities of the valuable cotton commodity for the US Treasury is now part of the ongoing education about the significance of our Federal Juneteenth Holiday.

National recognition of the purpose of Juneteenth will make the study of the beginning of Slavery in America, generations of captivity and bondage and our bloody US Civil War to end of “chattel slavery” throughout America’s Peculiar Institution widely known, over time..

Juneteenth was always celebrated widely by communities in and around Texas throughout the 19th century, flagged in popularity in the 20th century, and has become a more broadly celebrated holiday in the United States as well as Africa and Europe since many believe that the Modern Juneteenth Movement began during “Solidarity Day” on June 19, 1968.

Over 50,000 people gathered on the National Mall, Washington D.C., for Resurrection City, a temporary settlement to protest economic inequality and demand for an “Economic Bill of Rights” a part of the prophetic vision of late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was assassinated a few months earlier on April 4, 1968.

“The vast majority of Americans are only beginning to reckon with Juneteenth, the complexity and the horror of the history of slavery in the United States,” says Erica Ball, Black Studies Department chair at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

“Most Americans have learned about the history of slavery from the movies. Until very recently, most mainstream Hollywood movies privileged a representation of slavery that makes it seem as if it was a gentle, kind, and benign institution. So commemorating it, kind of reckoning with it, is something that I think, in its horror, that Americans are only beginning to get used to thinking about.”

Many American’s are beginning to fully acknowledge the horrors of chattel slavery and ongoing societal impacts by not acknowledging the egregious harm that was done.

At least twelve American Presidents owned enslaved people while the White House, Smithsonian, Harvard Law School and many other iconic American structures were built with enslaved captured and breed human labor that provided initial capital and collateral for US Stock and Global Bond Markets:

Juneteenth isn’t a day of mourning or atoning for the institution of slavery, It’s a liberation celebration for all Americans. A day to fly our US Flag along side our National Juneteenth Flag and remember our unique journey towards freedom.

Juneteenth, like Christmas is now a month-long celebration, building upon Black Music Month. Juneteenth Celebrations are festive affairs to include: parades, cookouts, education, parties, family reunions, memorials and a special new opportunity to highlight a renaissance of reconnecting to Pan African Culture through genealogy and DNA database research.

Many prefer to utilize the Pan African colors of Red, Black and Green popularized by the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey during the 1920’s and built upon during our annual “California Grown” Kwanzaa Agriculture Harvest Season, established by Dr. Maulana Karenga during the 1960’s during the aftermath of the Los Angeles Watts Rebellion.

Juneteenth isn’t the only historic day that commemorates the end of slavery, all across America, before, during and after Juneteenth are special days when the news of freedom was enforced during our United States Civil War.

In 1995, Rev. John Mosley called a meeting of National Juneteenth Organizers from all across the country to meet at Christian Unity Baptist Church, 1700 Conti Street, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Rev. Dr. Ronald Myers, a Physician who earlier answered the call of Fannie Lou Hamer to set up his Medical Practice deep in the woods of Mississippi, picked up the Juneteenth baton as President of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation and today, Juneteenth is a Title 5 US Federal Holiday, but “not yet” an official paid holiday in the City of Folsom.

Our California Black Chamber of Commerce has aligned with California State Parks and other local businesses to showcase a Black Miners Bar Juneteenth Day of Observance, while distorting, disparaging and destroying authentic California Gold Rush History for this milestone, 160th Anniversary of Juneteenth.

Downstream our State of California, all 58 Counties and 100+ Cities with 100,000+ residents will one day align with our Title 5 US Federal Juneteenth Holiday.