On June 15th, the U.S. Senate passed by unanimous consent a bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday. Juneteenth is the result of emancipation delayed by Confederate control over Galveston, Texas until federal troops arrived to inform enslaved Africans that they were no longer chattel property. Last year intense focus was placed on Juneteenth in the aftermath of protests over the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other African Americans at the hands of police misconduct. For some, the focus placed on Juneteenth represented a safe detour away from more substantive changes in policy around policing in this country. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that some view the adoption of Juneteenth as a federal holiday with a cynical side-eye.
It’s also not lost on critical observers that, as was the case with Oklahoma on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre, the state of Texas has passed legislation aimed at banning the use of critical race theory (CRT) in public school before the annual observance of Juneteenth. This cognitive dissonance between government recognition of historical events clearly impacted by America’s tortured history of race and slavery and the reactionary condemnation of theoretical frameworks that explain why Juneteenth exists (or why, 58 years after Emancipation, the African-American community of Greenwood in Tulsa, OK could be burned down to the ground by white supremacists) boggles the mind.
Federal holidays all celebrate or promote particular civic or cultural elements deemed essential to the national character. The question is what exactly is Juneteenth meant to celebrate on a national scale? While the details of the holiday are easy enough to recount, what are the civic lessons that the nation should take from the holiday once the novelty has worn off and it becomes, as so many other federal holidays, just a day off from work, complete with Juneteenth sales, Hallmark cards, and frenetic commercials?
Unlike other civic holidays that obscure a more complicated truth behind a symbolic celebration of a lofty ideal, such as faith and freedom on Thanksgiving or the 4th of July, Juneteenth is a much-needed reminder for the chronic case of historical amnesia that plagues large swathes of the American public. While Texas is not the first state that comes to mind when the history of slavery is discussed, the history of Texas is inextricably linked to the peculiar institution, as it is in many ways a quintessential slave state. In response to Texas legislation meant to whitewash any meaningful discussion of Texas’ racist past, historian Robert Greene II, writing in Jacobin, notes:
“In Texas, Republican governor Greg Abbott and his allies are pushing the “1836 Project” — a reading of the state’s history that will likely leave out one of the critical reasons white Texans fought for independence in the 1830s: keeping and enshrining slavery in territory that belonged to Mexico.”
Just as their forebears a half-century earlier, white Texans sought independence from a colonial power that placed restrictions on the expansion of slavery within its boundaries. Juneteenth is, in essence, the celebration of the end of slaveocracy in Texas. Although Juneteenth may be a novel to some, it should not be considered a blank slate to those new to the holiday. There are customs and traditions that should be respected rather than jettisoned for the sake of commercialization or appropriation.
First, is the Juneteenth flag itself. Adopted 24 years ago, the flag is the work of activist Ben Haith, founder of the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation (NJCF). Haith, along with Verlene Hines, Azim, and Eliot Design created the flag in 1997. The flag’s illustrator, Lisa Jeanne Graf, added the flag’s red, white and blue vision of a zigzag shape surrounding a star. The designers intended for the flag to communicate the following message, according to McKenzie Jean-Philippe:
“You’ll see that the Juneteenth flag uses the exact same colors as the United States’s flag: red, white, and blue. This was intentional and meant to show that the formerly enslaved and their descendants are free Americans, too.”
According to NJCF, the three symbols depicted in the flag represent:
- The Arc: a new horizon, meaning fresh opportunities and promising futures for Black Americans;
- The Star: not only is it a nod to the Lone Star State (where Juneteenth was first celebrated in 1865), but it also stands for the freedom of every Black American in all 50 states;
- The Burst: the outline surrounding the star is meant to reflect a nova—or new star—which represents a new beginning for all.
While it’s become popular to fly the Pan-African flag (Red, Black, and Green) or even a hybrid of the Pan-African flag and U.S. flag (an U.S. flag in the colors red, black and green) on Juneteenth, neither speaks to the holiday itself. These flags, mainly available online, are simple commercial ventures that devalue rather than honor the holiday’s message and intent. Adoption of the Juneteenth flag is a necessity for those interested in observing the holiday on its own terms.
As with other American holidays, food is central to the observance of Juneteenth, and one of the unique aspects of the Juneteenth menu is the emphasis on the color “red.” Juneteenth features many red colored dishes, deserts, and beverages that harken back to the holiday’s origins. According to tradition, a red-colored drink consisting of hibiscus and honey was consumed. Michael Twitty, a prominent culinary historian, notes that red-colored food and drinks draws upon the diasporic roots of African-American and American foodways. Enslaved Africans sent to Texas, the westernmost of the former Confederacy and cotton kingdom, were drawn from Yoruba and Kongo people for which red held spiritual meaning of sacrifice, transition, and power.
In his insightful New York Times article, “Hot Links and Red Drinks: The Rich Food Tradition of Juneteenth” soul-food expert Adrian Miller, notes the link between Juneteenth’s red drinks and their diasporic analogues. Miller writes: “Two traditional drinks from West Africa that had a lot of social meaning are kola nut tea and bissap (hibiscus).” Hibiscus came to the Americas with the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and is served throughout the Caribbean by the name sorrel. In addition, food historians have labeled a set of side dishes as prosperity sides, meaning foods that symbolize material wealth: black-eyed peas and pork represent wealth, collard greens (or any dish using leafy vegetables) are said to bring good fortune, and corn symbolizes gold.
In this last aspect, ritually speaking at least, Juneteenth has more in common with New Year’s Day observances than with the 4th of July. This is notable because clearly those first enslaved Africans who celebrated Emancipation or Jubilee Day and those who came afterward were keenly aware of the temporal proximity between Juneteenth and the 4th of July. As stated previously, Juneteenth is not a replacement or substitute for the 4th of July holiday, nor is it the “Black 4th of July.” This point cannot be stressed enough. This line of argument shares a common misunderstanding with a line of T-shirts that feature the message “Dear Racism, I’m Not My Grandparents” that convey the ahistorical message that previous generations of Black folks were either unaware of, afraid of, or complicit in the contradictions in American society. 
On the contrary, African Americans were well aware of the inconsistencies between the lofty ideals of freedom extolled on the 4th of July and their own lived experiences in antebellum America. While Frederick Douglass’ 4th of July oration is perhaps the most famous it is by no means the only address. African-American orators took the holiday as an opportunity to address this contradiction. As historian Jonathan Lande argues in a 2020 Washington Post commentary, “The Fourth of July is a Black American Holiday,” African-American orators and activists have long used the 4th of July to illuminate the differences between the laudable rhetoric of liberty and the oppressive slave-owning nation they actually resided in. Lemuel Hayes, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and an entire generation of Black abolitionists viewed July 4th as an opportunity to press for change and to celebrate, when appropriate.
Knowing this important antebellum history obliges us to remove the burden from Juneteenth to be a substitute or alternative 4th of July. The conflation between “independence” versus “emancipation” is even present in the legislative language deeming Juneteenth a federal holiday by referring to Juneteenth as “National Independence Day.” This notion of Juneteenth as a competing or “real” independence day causes more harm than good as it presents dueling narratives of national independence to which Black folks will bear the inevitable backlash of this misappropriation of the Juneteenth holiday as a counterpoint to July 4th. While we should debate when the United States became a democracy in the truest sense of the word, its national independence is tied to the events of 1776.
So, if Juneteenth isn’t a protest or substitution, I return to the question posed earlier: “What is the message of Juneteenth as a civic holiday?” For that answer let’s look at earlier critics of the inclusion of Juneteenth as a federal holiday. Last summer a bipartisan group in Congress tried to pass legislation to recognize Juneteenth. These efforts were sidelined by Senators Ron Johnson (R-WI) and James Langford (R-OK) who objected to a unanimous consent motion in the Senate, arguing that adding a federal holiday to the calendar was a waste of taxpayer money. However, in a press release Tuesday, Johnson backed down saying he would not oppose another unanimous consent motion.
As states and municipalities continue to recognize Juneteenth, one lesson should be remembered by those who raise complaints about adding another day off, during which many Americans are paid. If we’re talking about commemorating enslaved Africans who worked for an extra two years without pay, a paid holiday is the minimum effort of recompense. If there’s a lofty ideal that’s borne out by the Juneteenth holiday it’s that freedom and justice may be delayed but that they must come and that they only come through struggle. Here, Douglass’ words ring true, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
While the addition of Juneteenth as a federal holiday may be a bit of performative theater on the part of politicians, it was a concession nonetheless on the way to further concessions if and only if the struggle continues. Therefore, Juneteenth is an annual reminder, not just for Black folks but for all who struggle, that we must continue until freedom is won. Juneteenth is the canonization of civic struggle and the celebration of freedom, not from some foreign power, but from domestic tyranny. Remember to discuss this with friends and family so 20 years from now Juneteenth isn’t just about the hibiscus iced tea and red velvet cake.
