by Susan Brown
On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed legislation that made Juneteenth (June 19) a federal holiday, commemorating the historical acknowledgement of a day celebrated by Black Americans since 1866.
Juneteenth — also called “Juneteenth Day,” “Freedom Day” and “Emancipation Day” — is a holiday meant to celebrate word of emancipation finally coming to a group of 250,000 enslaved people in Galveston, Texas. It commemorates this group of slaves who learned that they had been emancipated two-and-a-half years earlier, when President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on June 1,1863, freeing 4 million enslaved people in the U.S.
Juneteenth is an opportunity for all people to reflect on the historical impact of the Black experience in the United States. It is also a reminder that everyone, to quote our Declaration of Independence, has “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
While we celebrate this Juneteenth, the holiday is, most importantly, a reminder that each of us has a responsibility to do our part in fulfilling and preserving these ideals. Therefore, the Community Coalition for Social Justice (CCSJ) invites everyone to join us and local groups, like the Morgantown/Kingwood Branch of the NAACP and the Morgantown Human Rights Commission, in the ongoing work of promoting social justice in our community.
To learn more about CCSJ, please go to www.ccsjwv.org or find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/108240242119.
