The Choice: Importance of Juneteenth: a Celebration of Freedom for ALL of Us
This is an official national holiday, and they will NOT erase our history!
Issue #872 The Choice, Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Trump and his sycophants are trying to erase the history and accomplishments of Black and other non-white and non-male Americans. Black Americans have been celebrating Juneteenth since the late 19th century, and it became a federal holiday in the United States on June 17, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. Juneteenth is celebrated annually on June 19th.
My dear friend, Jamon Jordan, is a highly respected educator in Detroit and serves as the official historian for the City of Detroit. He leads walking tours to historical sites in Detroit and Michigan for groups from around the country and the world. He is also the president of the Detroit Chapter of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, which was founded in 1915 by my own great-grand-uncle, Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Dr. Woodson also founded Negro History Week on February 7, 1926. Negro History Week is now Black History Month. The reason Black History Month is celebrated in February is that Negro History Week was observed in the same month.
As Jamon explains, Kwanzaa, Black History Month, and Juneteenth are “FUBU” (For Us By Us); none of those events were “given to us” by others.
The depth of his knowledge and the way he presents Black American and African history, in general, as well as the historical events and people of all races, for the City of Detroit, is unparalleled.
If you are on Facebook and if you love history, you really need to follow Jamon.
In 2019, Jamon wrote an article about the actual significance of Juneteenth for Black people. As he beautifully explains it, Juneteenth is not “just when the slaves in Texas finally got the news…”; it is much more important and meaningful than that.
With Jamon’s permission, I am reprinting his entire 2019 essay on Juneteenth. I am sure you will find it as illuminating, interesting, affirming, and educational as I did.
“Juneteenth” by Jamon Jordan, Official Historian for the City of Detroit
The significance of Juneteenth is based on a principle in African culture that supports “we” over “I.”
On April 16, 1862, Congress passed and Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act for Washington, DC. This law officially ended slavery in the nation’s capital.
The slaveowners were given $300 for every enslaved person they freed. The enslaved Africans were offered $100 if they left the country and went to Haiti or Liberia.
In Washington, DC, there is an Annual Emancipation Day celebration on April 16th.
It hasn’t caught on anywhere else.
Why not?
Some states ended slavery on their own before and during the Civil War.
Vermont ended slavery in its constitution on July 8, 1777. After doing that, the state was denied admission into the United States for over a decade.
As important as that historical fact is, we don’t celebrate that.
Why not?
Because it freed SOME people.
Michigan, which had slavery from the French arrival in 1701 until the 1833 uprising to free Thornton & Lucie (Rutha) Blackburn, officially ended slavery on January 26th, 1837.
There is no Freedom Celebration in Detroit on January 26th.
Some people would not be enslaved. But what about Black people in other places?
President Abraham Lincoln declared that the Emancipation Proclamation would take effect on January 1, 1863; however, the Proclamation only applied to the southern areas in rebellion—the Confederate states.
Immediately, any person enslaved in the South in an area that was under Union army occupation was freed.
The Proclamation led many Africans to escape from their enslavers and get to Union lines to obtain their freedom, and many of them joined the Union Army.
Word got around, and within 6 months of the Emancipation Proclamation, a million Black people escaped from plantations to Union lines.
They freed themselves.
There are numerous Emancipation Day celebrations during the first week of January. But they are not on the scale of Juneteenth.
In the Black community, churches hold Watch Night services on New Year’s Eve, which originated with the implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.
But Watch Night is not a celebration.
On June 1-2, 1863, Harriet Tubman led a troop of Union soldiers into South Carolina to the Combahee River. There, they freed 750 Black people from slavery.
There is no freedom celebration on June 1st or 2nd.
On January 31, 1865, Congress approved the 13th Amendment, which made slavery unconstitutional.
There is no Freedom Celebration on January 31st.
The reason why Juneteenth is so significant is only a LITTLE about the Black people in Texas who were informed of their freedom on June 19, 1865, by Union General Gordon Granger, when he brought a regiment into Galveston, Texas.
The reason why Juneteenth resonates with Black people is that it is NOT the honoring of SOME Black people who got free from escaping, or from lawsuits, or from buying their freedom, or from slave revolts, or from being manumitted by their slaveowners, or by state constitutions, or by the Emancipation Proclamation.
It is the celebration of freedom AT LAST for ALL OF US.
This idea from African culture is that freedom is not really about “some” of us. But it really is about “ALL” of us. (Bold is added by me…)
This is why, when Harriet Tubman escaped in 1849, she went back repeatedly to help other people.
This is why Second Baptist Church in Detroit was a station on the Underground Railroad.
This is why Frederick Douglass was an abolitionist, a writer, an Underground Railroad agent, and an antislavery orator.
This is why Isabella Baumfree became Sojourner Truth.
When you celebrate Juneteenth, you’re not just recognizing the people who were freed in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865.
You’re honoring the total fight for freedom in Elmina, Cape Coast, and Goree Island.
On the Whydah, the Susan Constant, the Clotilda, and the Amistad.
You’re honoring David Walker, Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, and Nat Turner.
Because it wasn’t just about THEM. It was about ALL OF US.
Juneteenth, unlike the Compensated Emancipation for Washington, DC, or the Emancipation Proclamation, is not about SOME OF US.
It’s about ALL OF US.
And Black people created Juneteenth.
That’s why Juneteenth is important.
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What a great article by Jamon Jordan about Juneteenth - which in just a short recognition period for folks that don't know the significance - becomes so very important at this time. As I'm sure openly White Nationlist 'Rump goons Miller & Hegseth have already tried/are trying to get this historical date erased. Not just from it's Biden Harris admin appointed Federal Holiday status (since jealous loser 'Rump has to try and undo everything Obama & Biden) but also from any U.S. Govt./Military/Education and corpo/private sector recognition...
May we all celebrate Juneteenth today, next year, and many years to follow! With joy, pride, and knowing Juneteenth's part in the constant fight against oppression.
May you celebrate today forever 🤞💙