# data[].attributes.body
Dive deeper into the story of Juneteenth and its importance today through a selection of documentaries and films. These visual narratives offer compelling views on the historical events leading up to Juneteenth, the celebration of this crucial day, and its relevance in contemporary society.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Juneteenth, the federal holiday observed on June 19, commemorates the end of slavery in Texas, two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect on January 1, 1863. To commemorate the holiday, networks and streamers have lined up programming this weekend that highlights and celebrates the Black experience in America.

From documentaries and comedies to musical celebrations and empowering family fare, here are 19 shows, specials, and movies you can watch to educate and entertain your family over the holiday weekend.

Friday, June 16

Where to Watch: In Theaters | buy on Vudu
The Blackening centers around a group of Black friends who reunite for a Juneteenth weekend getaway only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer. Forced to play by his rules, the friends soon realize this ain't no motherfu**in' game. Directed by Tim Story ( Ride Along, Think Like A Man, Barbershop) and co-written by Tracy Oliver ( Girls Trip, Harlem) and Dewayne Perkins ( The Amber Ruffin Show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), The Blackening skewers genre tropes and poses the sardonic question: if the entire cast of a horror movie is Black, who dies first?

Saturday, June 17

Where to Watch: NatGeo Wild (free with your cable subscription) | by subscription on Disney+ starting June 21
Life-long birder Christian Cooper takes us into the wild, wonderful and unpredictable world of birds. Whether navigating volcanic terrain in Hawaii for elusive honeycreepers, trekking into rainforests in Puerto Rico for parrots, or scaling a bridge in Manhattan for a peregrine falcon, he does whatever it takes to learn about these extraordinary, feathered creatures and show us the remarkable world in the sky above.

Monday, June 19
Juneteenth: A Global Celebration for Freedom
Where to Watch: CNN/OWN, 8 p.m.
Celebrated Black artists and musicians will take the stage at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles for CNN's second annual "Juneteenth: A Global Celebration for Freedom" concert. Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver special remarks during the event, which will include performers Charlie Wilson, Miguel, Kirk Franklin, Nelly, SWV, Davido, Coi Leray, Jodeci and Mike Phillips, with Academy award-winning director Questlove and Adam Blackstone serving as the musical directors. The show will also feature a tribute to the late music legend Tina Turner by singer and Grown-ish star Chlöe Bailey. The event is produced by Live Nation Urban and Jesse Collins Entertainment.
Juneteenth Honors
Where to Watch: Shades of Black (FAST channel), 8 p.m.
Shades of Black will host the world premiere of the Juneteenth Honors starting at 8pm ET. This live awards and music show, presented by The Juneteenth Foundation, celebrates black excellence. The show will highlight the history and achievements of African Americans and raise money for HBCU scholarships to further the dreams and goals of a new generation of Black leaders and change makers. The event will be hosted by entertainer and entrepreneur MC Lyte and will feature performances by JaRule, Ashanti, Toosii, Lalah Hathaway, iAmCompton, and the Howard Gospel Choir with appearances by T.I., Tamika Mallory, Chuck D., Herbie Hancock, Rohan Marley, Chuck Creekmur (CEO and Founder of AllHipHop), and Dr. Kevin James (President Morris Brown College). FM will air the award show on June 21 at 1 a.m. ET.

Now Streaming

Where to Watch: Kanopy (free with public library membership) | Freevee (with ads)
Former First Lady Michelle Obama's story has just begun. The Obamas have remained quite busy with their new life of activism which includes their issue-oriented production company, Higher Ground, which won an Oscar for Best Documentary in 2020. Mrs. Obama's autobiography, Becoming, has become the best-selling memoir of all time and even won a Grammy following the publication of her book. Get lost in the incredible journey of this modern-day First Lady's story in the making...

Where to Watch: Peacock
The film, directed by three-time News Emmy nominee Rachel Boynton ( Big Men, Our Brand Is Crisis) who also produced the documentary with Erika Dilday, travels across the United States, exploring how Americans tell the story of their Civil War. Filmed from President Obama's final year in office through the present, it interweaves insightful scenes and touching interviews filmed North and South, painting a uniquely crafted, multi-faceted portrait of the American psyche and the deep roots of its turbulent times.

Where to Watch: rent on Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV
A former beauty queen turned hardworking single mom prepares her rebellious teenage daughter for the Miss Juneteenth pageant, hoping to keep her from repeating the same mistakes in life that she made. The film stars Nicole Beharie, who earned a Best Actress Gotham Independent Film Award for her performance, Kendrick Sampson, and newcomer Alexis Chikaeze, who earned a Best Supporting Female Actress Independent Spirit Award nomination

Where to Watch: rent from Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV
Bitten by a radioactive spider in the subway, Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales suddenly develops mysterious powers that transform him into the one and only Spider-Man. When he meets Peter Parker, he soon realizes that there are many others who share his special, high-flying talents. Miles must now use his newfound skills to battle the evil Kingpin, a hulking madman who can open portals to other universes and pull different versions of Spider-Man into our world.

The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder

Where to Watch: Disney+
A continuation of the acclaimed series, The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder follows the adventures and misadventures of newly 14-year-old Penny Proud and her Proud Family as they navigate modern life with hilarity and heart. The 2020s brings new career highs for mom Trudy, wilder dreams for dad Oscar and new challenges for Penny, including a socially woke neighbor who thinks she has a lot to teach her, bullying social media influencers who want to cancel her and her own teenage hormones. Penny's friends return, including Dijonay, LaCienega, Zoey and Michael. Penny's Suga Mama also returns, ready as ever to dispense tough love or a gentle hand whenever Penny needs it. Among the new faces are Maya and KG, new kids who not only have to deal with the struggles of being the new kid but also having two dads, a first for Smithville.

Where to Watch: Kanopy (free with public library membership) | by subscription on PBS Documentaries on Prime Video | rent on Prime Video or Apple TV+
The 90-minute documentary challenges one of Americans' most cherished assumptions: the belief that slavery in this country ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. The film tells how even as chattel slavery came to an end in the South in 1865, thousands of African Americans were pulled back into forced labor with shocking force and brutality.

Where to Watch: PBS Passport | PBS Documentaries on Amazon
Chuck D transports audiences back to hip-hop's inception and documents the genre's steps in revolutionizing and challenging America's history over four decades.
Fight the Power: The Movements That Changed America
Where to Watch: Apple TV+
Executive produced and narrated by NBA legend and social justice advocate Kareem Abul-Jabbar, and Deborah Morales of Iconomy Multi-Media & Entertainment, the one-hour documentary looks at the impact key movements throughout U.S. history have had in shaping our society, laws, and culture. From the labor movement of the 1880s, women's suffrage, and civil rights, to the LGBTQ+ and Black Lives Matter movements, protest is in the American DNA and this documentary gives an unfiltered look at the ways it has evolved the world in which we live.

Where to Watch: by subscription on Disney+ and Hulu

Inspired by the beloved award-winning series of the same name, The Wonder Years is a new original coming-of-age comedy that tells the story of the Williams family during the late 1960s, all through the point of view of imaginative 12-year-old Dean. With the wisdom of his adult years, Dean's hopeful and humorous recollections of his past spotlight the ups and downs of growing up in a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama, and the friendship, laughter and lessons along the way.

Read Also:
* The 123 Best Black Movies of the 21st Century
* 110 Important Films About the Black Experience
* 20 Under-the-Radar Black Movies You Should Seek Out
On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
19 Things To Watch This Juneteenth Weekend

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Observe the federal holiday with movies, series, specials, documentaries, and family programming that celebrate the Black experience in America.

# data[].attributes.body
Explore the rich history and vibrant culture of African Americans with a curated reading list. This collection includes novels, biographies, and historical accounts that provide deeper insights into the significance of Juneteenth and the ongoing fight for racial justice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
National Museum of African American History and Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Take a sneak peek at our museum's top picks and explore the books on our expert's must-read list - curated just for you.

Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. Frederick Douglass

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Take a sneak peek at our museum's top picks and explore the books on our expert's must-read list - curated just for you. Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. Frederick Douglass

# data[].attributes.body
Juneteenth is celebrated in various ways across the country through parades, festivals, and educational events. These celebrations serve as reminders of the hard-fought struggle for freedom while honoring African American culture and contributions. Communities engage in readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, singing of traditional songs, and holding symposiums to discuss the historical significance and contemporary relevance of Juneteenth.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
On June 19, 1865, enslaved African Americans in Texas were told they were free. A century and a half later, people across the U.S. continue to celebrate the day, which is now a federal holiday.

# data[].attributes.headline
Juneteenth Today: Reflecting Commitment to Equality

# data[].attributes.subject
Juneteenth Today: Reflecting Commitment to Equality

# data[].attributes.body
In celebrating Juneteenth, we're not only commemorating a historical event but are also advocating for continued progress towards racial equality and justice. It's a day to reflect on the journey towards freedom, acknowledge the achievements, and recommit to the principles of equality and justice for all. Engaging in community service, supporting Black-owned businesses, and educating oneself and others about African American history and culture are meaningful ways to observe Juneteenth.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Adam Thomas is an assistant professor of history at Western Carolina University whose research examines questions of slavery, anti-slavery warfare, emancipation, race, gender, memory, childhood and kinship in colonial North America and the early U.S. We asked Dr. Thomas to provide some insight into the historical significance of Juneteenth and what the event means during these times of civil unrest and protest.
Juneteenth (June 19th) first became a day of celebration in Texas in 1865, when 1,800 U.S. troops arrived in Galveston. Their commander, Major General Gordon Granger read aloud General Order no. 3:

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 ... 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.

For enslaved people present, this was the first news they received of their freedom. One among them, Pierce Harper, described the celebrations enjoyed on that first Juneteenth. Freedpeople "stayed up half the night," he recalled, "singing and shouting ... They weren't slaves anymore." ¹ Technically, they had not been slaves for some time. Granger's announcement came a full two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation supposedly abolished slavery in states like Texas that joined the Confederacy in treason against the United States. It came more than two months even after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox and John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, the Executive mentioned in the Order. News could travel slowly to the more remote edges of the Cotton Kingdom, especially when slaveholders did all they could to suppress it.

A year later in 1866, Black Texans celebrated again, commemorating the anniversary of emancipation with food, music, prayer, and fireworks. ² From this point on, Juneteenth became an annual event-a way for Black communities to demonstrate their free status in a predominantly white society determined to challenge it. Over time a local Texan affair gained wider participation throughout the country. Today, forty-seven states and the District of Columbia observe Juneteenth in some way. In recent weeks, companies from Twitter and Nike to Target and the New York Times have made it a paid holiday.

This last development owes much to the Black Lives Matter protests currently sweeping the nation and the increased attention they have brought to long histories of systemic racism and anti-Black violence. The killings of Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery are some of the most recent examples of these ongoing trends. More protests are planned for the 19th itself, combining both celebration of Black freedom and continued commitment to realize that freedom fully.

Juneteenth is a particularly appropriate day upon which to recognize the unfinished nature of racial justice work. It differs from other abolition anniversaries once more commonly celebrated in the U.S., such as August 1st (recognizing the end of slavery in British colonies in 1834), and January 1st, (recognizing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863). While these two dates marked starting points of freedom recognized in law, Juneteenth acknowledges the necessity of claiming freedom in practice even once that law exists. Although Black people in Texas were legally free from January 1863, enslavers could still hold them in bondage through disinformation and violence. It took the arrival of an army to secure a meaningful experience of liberty.

The necessity of that army also offers lessons for the current moment. Slavery did not end because those with power over Black lives decided it should; it ended through the forceful action of a military campaign. That campaign only succeeded because enslaved people fled the Confederacy in vast numbers, enlisted in the U.S. military, and returned to fight their oppressors. After first fatally undermining the Confederate war effort by drastically reducing its labor force, they finished the job through force of arms. The most perceptive chronicler of this moment, W. E. B. Du Bois, referred to their actions as a "general strike"; another historian more recently called it the "greatest slave rebellion in modern history." ³ Both phrases acknowledge the centrality of Black protest to emancipation. Pierce Harper, who described the first Juneteenth above, also reminded his white interviewer of the crucial role Black people played in their own liberation: when they "flocked down on ... the Yankee lines ... in droves," the U.S. army "put [them] to work fighting for freedom. They [fought] till the war was over and a lot of them got killed." Another formerly enslaved Texan, Willis Easter, called the Civil War the "freedom war," making clear the relationship between struggle and true liberty. ⁴

This commitment to freedom was not unique to U.S. history. From the Haitian Revolution that transformed the most profitable slave colony in the world into a free Black Republic, to the massive uprising in Jamaica in 1831 that inspired Britain's parliament to end slavery in its colonies, Black protest consistently forced the issue. Speaking on the anniversary of British emancipation, abolitionist Frederick Douglass offered the Jamaican case as an example for Americans to follow. He reminded them that "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will ... Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground."

Today, protestors continue to issue demands and plough that ground. We can see from the General Order Granger read on that first Juneteenth why their work remains necessary so long after emancipation. While freedpeople would assert their rights to and secure a measure of equal citizenship during the postwar Reconstruction period, they faced significant obstacles. By compelling the formerly enslaved to work only as "hired labor" for white "employers," and by assuming they would descend into "idleness" without white discipline, the U.S. government reinforced a deeply engrained racist view: freedpeople were always a potentially criminal class unwilling to work without subjugation and therefore unworthy of political equality. Other predominantly-white institutions exhibited the same ideology. New police forces, developed directly from slave patrols, set about circumscribing Black mobility by force. This racist criminal justice system, bolstered by constant threat of The U.S. government's response was often indifferent. It provided no compensation for the years freedpeople spent generating white wealth under slavery, and then did little when, impoverished, thousands died from ⁵ New laws enacted in the former Confederate states required freedpeople to enter exploitative labor contracts for white "employers" or face prison. And the new prisons (many built on former plantations) either forced Black people to work for the state or sold their labor to private citizens. ⁶ In Du Bois' words, it was slavery in "everything but name." ⁷ ⁸
white violence from paramilitary organizations and lynch mobs, dogged every step Black citizens took toward equality. multiple epidemics following the war.

Despite, or indeed because, of the limits placed upon their freedom, protestors continued to heed Frederick Douglass' advice throughout the twentieth century. They met Jim Crow segregation in North and South with the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. Most people know activists of this era pursued equal access to the vote and public accommodations, but their demands also included economic equality, community control, and an end to police brutality. And it was not only sit-ins and boycotts that brought change when it came; massive uprisings did too. Like earlier generations who attacked the gains Black people made during Reconstruction, white supremacists rolled back some of the twentieth-century advancements. ⁹ This is why today, in an era of mass incarceration and policing which one scholar terms the " New Jim Crow," the Movement for Black Lives picks up where these earlier movements left off, making similar demands in its platform.

Scholar and activist Angela Y. Davis argues that understanding the contemporary movement requires acknowledgement of deep connections "between nineteenth-century antislavery struggles, twentieth-century civil rights struggles, and twenty-first century abolitionist struggles." Freedom, Davis remind us, is a "constant struggle." Just as U.S. history since 1865 has witnessed continuities in systemic racism, so too has it seen continuous renewal of the fight for freedom, with each phase building on previous ones. The current protests developed from a long tradition, spanning not just Civil Rights and Black Power activism of the twentieth century, but also slave uprisings -including actions Black people took during the Civil War. From the original Juneteenth until today, its observers have commemorated a moment in that long story which truly conveys the unending nature of the fight for justice. Juneteenth recognizes both the promise of freedom but also the ever-present possibility of its overthrow. It celebrates the achievements gained by protest, rather than just law, while rededicating celebrants to the defense of those gains and the pursuit of new ones.

About the Author

Dr. Adam Thomas is an assistant professor of history at Western Carolina University whose research examines questions of slavery, anti-slavery warfare, emancipation, race, gender, memory, childhood, and kinship in colonial North America, the early U.S., Caribbean, and Atlantic World. His current book project compares two 1831 uprisings against slavery-in Virginia and Jamaica-focusing on how enslaved people understood the events, and how memories of them shape contemporary politics.

Prior to joining the faculty at WCU, Dr. Thomas held postdoctoral fellowships at Ohio State University, and was a Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies at Miami University (Ohio). He has also held fellowships from the Social Science Research Council, Council on Library and Information Resources, American Antiquarian Society, American Philosophical Society, and the Virginia Historical Society. He has published essays in Slavery & Abolition, the Journal of Caribbean History, Women's Studies Quarterly, Black Perspectives, and edited collections.

References

1. Pierce Harper, in Federal Writers' Project, Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, vol. 16, Texas, part 2 (Library of Congress, 1941), 111.

2. Shennette Garrett-Scott, Rebecca Cummings Richardson and Venita Dillard-Allen, "'When Peace Come': Teaching the Significance of Juneteenth," Black History Bulletin 76, no. 2 (2013): 19-20.

3. W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880 (Free Press, 1998 [1935]), 55-83; Steven Hahn, The Political Worlds of Slavery and Freedom (Harvard University Press, 2009), 55-114.

4. Piercer Harper, Willis Easter, in Federal Writers' Project, Slave Narratives, 111, 1.

5. Sally Hadden, Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas (Harvard University Press, 2001).

6. Alex Lichtenstein, Twice the Work of Free Labor: The Political Economy of Convict Labor in the South (Verso, 1996).

7. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction, 167.

8. Kidada E. Williams, They Left Great Marks on Me: African American Testimonies of Racial Violence from Emancipation to World War I (New York University Press, 2011).

9. Carol Anderson, White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide (Bloomsbury, 2016).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Historical Significance and Contemporary Relevance of Juneteenth

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Adam Thomas is an assistant professor of history at Western Carolina University whose research examines questions of slavery, anti-slavery warfare, emancipation, race, gender, memory, childhood and kinship in colonial North America and the early U.S. We asked Dr. Thomas to provide some insight into the historical significance of Juneteenth and what the event means during these times of civil unrest and protest.

# data[].attributes.body
Juneteenth, observed on June 19th, commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. It marks the day in 1865 when Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. This day emphasizes freedom, celebrates African-American culture, and promotes education and achievement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
National Museum of African American History and Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Join the museum's Juneteenth celebration - during the entire month of June - and embrace the rich history of Freedom Day each week.

The First Juneteenth

On June 19, 1865, nearly two years after President Abraham Lincoln emancipated enslaved Africans in America, Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas with news of freedom. More than 250,000 African Americans embraced freedom by executive decree in what became known as Juneteenth or Freedom Day. With the principles of self-determination, citizenship, and democracy magnifying their hopes and dreams, those Texans held fast to the promise of true liberty for all.

"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 rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer."
Gordon Granger

Union General, June 19, 1865

A Freedom Deferred

With the end of slavery, searching for family members who had been separated or sold away became the focus of many formerly enslaved individuals. The number of years of separation did not deter people from hoping to reunite with lost loved ones. Newspaper advertisements, letters and word of mouth were all employed as part of the search. The hope was that a positive response might lead to a reunion with family members.

Office of Sub Asst. Comr. Bur. R.F. & A.L.
sixth Sub District of Texas
Columbus Tex June 12th 1867.

Lieut. J.T. Kirkman U.S.A.
Supt. of Education
Bur. R.F. & A.L.
Galveston Tex

Sir:

The freedpeople of this County are to celebrate the anniversary of their Emancipation
on Saturday June 24th. The schools of this District
will form a feature of the day's enjoyment in making
short addresses + singing songs and hymns. It has been suggested that Prizes be
distributed on that day to those of the children
who have received the highest averages for good conduct and application to study.

Will the Bureau furnish these say 10 or 15 handsome Bibles and a
few other good Books for the occasion?

Very Respectfully
Your Obd't Servt
Enon M. Harris
S.A. Comr.

Records of the Superintendent of Education for the State of Texas Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1870, Letters Received, Unregistered Letters Received

Tastes of Resilience

Explore the symbolism of red foods as a sign of resilience and joy. The color red is highly associated with the cultures that would've come through the later years of the TransAtlantic slave trade, which would have been Yoruba and Kongo. People from the Yoruba of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo; and the Kongo of Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo and Gabon-placed great philosophical and spiritual value in the color red as it symbolizes sacrifice, transition and power.

Sounds of Freedom

Celebrate the ways slaves sung their way to freedom. Highlighting songs of survival and negro spirituals. Listen to music that symbolizes hope, joy and perseverance and honors Black Americans' lives, legacy, resilience and self-sufficiency.

Juneteenth Today

In 2021, Juneteenth was established as a federal holiday, opening it to symbolic and global interpretation and providing a better understanding of the evolution of our nation and its people. Juneteenth celebrations then, like now, recognize the ongoing fight for human rights and equality and are commemorated through family cookouts, faith services, musical performances and storytelling. Today, Juneteenth celebrates African American resilience and achievement while aiding in the preservation of those historical narratives that promoted racial and personal advancement since Freedom Day.

"As we continue to celebrate Juneteenth as a federal holiday, we remember and recognize how the Black community continues to make a way out of no way, overcoming trials and celebrating triumphs while honoring the place and price of freedom."
Kevin Young

Andrew W. Mellon Director, NMAAHC

Video Header Credit: Film 26, 1926, 1928, undated. Solomon Sir Jones Films. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Juneteenth is a time to gather as a family, reflect on the past and look to the future. Discover ways to celebrate this African American cultural tradition of music, food and freedom.

# data[].attributes.body
Following the end of the Civil War, Major General Gordon Granger's announcement in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, signified the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in one of the last Confederate holdouts. This historical moment didn't just mark the end of physical bondage but also represented the prolonged struggle for equality and justice that African Americans continued to face.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By Matthew Cimitile, University Communications and Marketing

Juneteenth has become the most well-known celebration for the ending of slavery in the United States and viewed by some as America's second Independence Day. But the history of this important celebration is complex and often misunderstood.

Juneteenth isn't a straightforward story of emancipation, nor did it necessarily improve conditions for many African Americans the next day or even the next decade, according to Erin Stewart Mauldin, the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History at USF St. Petersburg and an expert on the Civil War and Reconstruction.

"Juneteenth is neither the beginning nor the end of something," Mauldin said. "The end of the Civil War and the ending of slavery didn't happen overnight and was a lot more like a jagged edge than a clean cut."

Dating back to 1865, the holiday commemorates the day when 250,000 slaves in the state of Texas, which became the last bastion for slavery during the final days of the Civil War, were declared free by the U.S. Army.

As soon as the following year, local festivities were organized in African American communities to celebrate and remember the significance of that day, June 19. The celebrations continued year after year.

In the 20th century, as African Americans from Texas and neighboring states spread throughout the country, so too did Juneteenth celebrations. In 1980, Texas became the first to make it a state holiday. Shortly thereafter, other states followed suit, along with organizations and businesses across the nation hosting events and educational opportunities dedicated to commemorating the significance of this day.

In 2021, the day became a national holiday.
Emancipation & the fight for justice
Some slaves in the Confederate states were technically freed as early as January 1, 1863, the date when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln and went into effect. The proclamation was only as good as the Union army's enforcement of it (and didn't pertain to slaves in the Union border states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri), meaning slavery ended in a region when the army occupied the territory.

Even after General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army, surrendered at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, an event generally regarded as the end of the Civil War, battles, skirmishes and slavery continued. The last Confederate holdouts moved further away from the approaching Union army as possible, ending up in Texas.

"When Lee surrendered at Appomattox, it's not over. Major military campaigns went through June and people continue to fight for years," Mauldin explained. "Depending on how isolated the enslaved were from the U.S. army or networks of information or places they could escape to, bondage did not end in 1865."

From there, the story becomes even more complicated. Now free, the formerly enslaved had no wealth, no property and few places to turn. The best solution for many was staying where they were, working for former slave owners and fighting to ensure they would now get paid in a new arrangement of employer and hired labor.

"Plantation owners didn't want to pay their former slaves at all and the former Confederate states were more or less broke after the war, so they didn't have money to even pay," Mauldin said. "Though slavery ends, the conditions for many change very little initially."

Eventually contracts would become standardized among employers and labor and an economic system of sharecropping developed. Laborers would work a plot of land for a share of the crop or profits at the end of the year. Some would begin to amass goods and property, enough to make their own decisions on what to plant, what livestock to buy and even hire additional laborers to farm the land.

But many in this new economic system would amass debt, as the only way to receive property and items to farm was to become indebted to landowners. The struggle for freedom morphed into a struggle for economic independence.

"Freedom was not a straight line from the Emancipation Proclamation to Juneteenth to the Civil Rights movement," Mauldin said. "Individuals had to fight for every piece of freedom they experienced and the struggle for racial justice that started long before the war did not end with emancipation."

The celebration of Juneteenth today is important because it helps initiate difficult conversations and raises awareness about the country's complicated and tragic history of slavery and racial injustice, Mauldin said.

"It is immensely important to remember the difficulties of fighting and securing even the smallest measures of freedom," she said. "Juneteenth has become a symbol for emancipation and provides a highly visible celebration that does get at these difficult conversations of America's racial history."
General Order No. 3 from Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, freeing the slaves of Texas on June 19, 1865 (known today as Juneteenth) "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."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
University of South Florida St. Petersburg

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Juneteenth: The complicated history, significance and celebration around the struggle for freedom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Juneteenth has become the most well-known celebration for the ending of slavery in the United States and viewed by some as America's second Independence Day. But the history of this important celebration is complex and often misunderstood. Juneteenth isn't a straightforward story of emancipation, nor did it necessarily improve conditions for many African Americans the next day or even the next decade.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Brightest Day : a Juneteenth Historical Romance Anthology | WorldCat.org

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Brightest Day: A Juneteenth Historical Romance Anthology, with a foreword by the inimitable Beverly Jenkins, brings you four novellas highlighting love, light, and hope set over a period of histor

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. Racist ideas are woven into the fabric of this country, and the first step to building an antiracist America is acknowledging America's racist past and present.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Rinaldi, A. (2007). Come Juneteenth (First edition.). Harcourt.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Rinaldi, Ann. 2007. Come Juneteenth. Harcourt.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Rinaldi, Ann. Come Juneteenth Harcourt, 2007.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Rinaldi, Ann. Come Juneteenth First edition., Harcourt, 2007.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Fourteen-year-old Luli and her family face tragedy after failing to tell their slaves that President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation made them free.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Taylor, N. A. (2022). Watermelon & red birds: a cookbook for Juneteenth and black celebrations (First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.). Simon & Schuster.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Taylor, Nicole A.. 2022. Watermelon & Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations. Simon & Schuster.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Taylor, Nicole A.. Watermelon & Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations Simon & Schuster, 2022.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Taylor, Nicole A.. Watermelon & Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition., Simon & Schuster, 2022.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Watermelon & red birds : a cookbook for Juneteenth and black celebrations

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"The very first cookbook to celebrate Juneteenth, from food writer and cookbook author Nicole A. Taylor--who draws on her decade of experiences observing the holiday"--Amazon.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Interconnected stories present a picture of racial inequality in America, showing systemic discrimination in all areas of society and showing the unbroken line of Black resistance to this inequality"--

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Defining moments in Black history: reading between the lies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The activist and comedian examines key events in black history, from the beginnings of the slave trade in Africa and the Middle Passage to the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Lives Matter movement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"It is staggering that there is no date commemorating the end of slavery in the United States." -Annette Gordon-Reed. The essential, sweeping story of Juneteenth's integral importance to American history, as told by a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian andTexas native.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Benjamin Banneker and us: eleven generations of an American family

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"A family reunion gives way to an unforgettable genealogical quest as relatives reconnect across lines of color, culture, and time, putting the past into urgent conversation with the present. In 1791, Thomas Jefferson hired a Black man to help survey Washington, DC.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
(UPBEAT MUSIC) ♪ AIN'T GOT TIME TO DIE LORD ♪ ♪ AIN'T GOT TIME TO DIE LORD ♪ ♪ HELLO AMERICA PLEASE STOP WITH THE EULOGIES ♪ ♪ I WROTE MY OWN NARRATIVE ♪ ♪ YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH ME ♪ ♪ I WAS ONCE BROKEN ♪ ♪ NOW I'M A WORKING COLLAGE ♪ ♪ I'M THE THIEF ON THE CROSS ♪ ♪ I'M STILL HANGING WITH GOD ♪ ♪ MY SAVIOR WALKED ON WATER ♪ ♪ MY ANCESTORS CAN FLY ♪ ♪ MY SKIN IT DOESN'T CRACK ♪ ♪ MY ART TRAVELS THROUGH TIME ♪ ♪ JESUS SLEPT IN A GRAVE ♪ ♪ BUT HE ROSE FEELING FINE 'CAUSE ♪ ♪ AIN'T GOT TIME TO DIE ♪ ♪ THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING ♪ ♪ AIN'T GOT TIME ♪ ♪ AIN'T GOT TIME TO DIE ♪ ♪ AIN'T GOT TIME ♪ ♪ JUST AIN'T GOT TIME TO DIE ♪ (WATER LAPPING) (PEOPLE HUMMING) THE DIASPORA SPEAKS THROUGH MY SKIN.

THE REVERBERATING OF SALTY TIDES, RUSTED CHAIN BOAT RIDES, AND ARRIVING TO THE SHORES OF GALVESTON PORTS.

THE COMMODITY OF HUMAN CARGO STIMULATED ECONOMIC GROWTH YET IT DASHED THE HOPES OF BLACK PEOPLE TO A BLOODY PULP.

AMERICAN APARTHEID BEGINS.

THE ROPE BECOMES A NOOSE ON THE NECK.

CALLOUSED, THORN AND THISTLE-PRICKED HANDS TOILING IN BLOODSTAINED COTTON FIELDS.

A DEVASTATING DISPLACEMENT AND SEPARATION OF FATHERS AND MOTHERS FROM CHILDREN AND EACH OTHER BECAME SO BURDENSOME THAT THE VOICES OF THE ENSLAVED RAISED IN UNISON TOWARDS THE HEAVENS FOR FREEDOM.

THEN CAME FOUR YEARS OF CIVIL WAR.

SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND U.S. CITIZENS SLAUGHTERED, FOUR MILLION PEOPLE EMANCIPATED.

BUT THE REAL QUESTION WAS: WHO WOULD TELL US THAT WE HAD BEEN SET FREE?

♪ WADE IN THE WATER ♪ RASOOL BERRY: THE IDEA OF FREEDOM IS THE CENTER OF THE AMERICAN ETHOS.

IT'S OUR HIGHEST ASPIRATION.

AND YET ITS OPPOSITE, SLAVERY, IS CENTRAL TO OUR ORIGIN STORY, AMERICA'S ORIGINAL SIN.

I'VE COME TO TEXAS TO LEARN THE TRUE STORY BEHIND JUNETEENTH, AMERICA'S NEWEST NATIONAL HOLIDAY, AND THE FIRST IN WHICH WE TOGETHER CELEBRATE THE END OF SLAVERY.

I'M HERE FOR MYSELF, A DESCENDANT OF SLAVES, FOR MY COUNTRY, BUILT WITH THEIR HANDS AND FOR MY CHRISTIAN FAITH, WHICH WAS USED TO JUSTIFY SLAVERY AND YET BECAME AN INSPIRATION FOR LIBERATION.

ON THE STREETS OF GALVESTON WHERE THE JUNETEENTH STORY BEGINS, I AM GREETED BY A HISTORICAL MARKER.

ON JUNE 19TH, 1865, TWO AND A HALF YEARS AFTER THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, GENERAL GORDON GRANGER ARRIVED BY BOAT WITH "GENERAL ORDER III" IN HAND, WHICH STATED, "ALL SLAVES ARE FREE.

"THIS INVOLVES AN ABSOLUTE EQUALITY OF PERSONAL RIGHTS "AND THE RIGHTS OF PROPERTY "BETWEEN FORMER MASTERS AND SLAVES."

TO UNDERSTAND THIS NEW FREEDOM, I FIRST NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY WERE FREED FROM.

MICHAEL WATERS: IT'S VERY IMPORTANT THAT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT SLAVERY, THAT WE HUMANIZE IT, RIGHT?

YOU CAN MISS THE HUMANITY WHEN YOU EMPHASIZE TEN MILLION SLAVES, RIGHT?

WE WANNA TALK ABOUT SOMEONE'S SON, SOMEONE'S DAUGHTER WHO MADE THE ARDUOUS FORCED PASSAGE FROM THEIR HOMELAND TO THIS COUNTRY.

RASOOL: THE VOICES OF THE PAST ECHO INTO THE PRESENT HERE.

PASTOR MICHAEL WATERS, A NATIVE TEXAN WHO HAS IMMERSED HIMSELF IN THIS HISTORY WILL TRANSLATE THEM FOR ME.

MICHAEL: SO WE CAN BEGIN WITH THIS.

THIS IS A MANILA BRACELET.

THIS BRACELET WAS THE FORM OF CURRENCY FROM WESTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES WHEN THEY WENT TO WEST AFRICA IN ORDER TO PURCHASE OUR ANCESTORS AS SLAVES.

SIX TO EIGHT OF THESE WOULD ALLOW YOU TO BUY A HUMAN BEING.

AFTER YOU HAD BEEN PURCHASED, OF COURSE, YOU WERE PUT IN CHAINS.

THESE ARE AUTHENTIC CHAINS FROM GHANA.

JUST IMAGINE, FEEL THE WEIGHT OF THESE, OF HAVING THESE PLACED UPON YOU.

RASOOL: AND THESE WOULD BE PLACED ON WRIST OR FEET?

MICHAEL: THESE WOULD BE PLACED ON FEET.

OKAY, THESE ARE SHACKLES.

AND YOU'D BE ON THE SHIP FOR MONTHS BEFORE YOU ACTUALLY SET OFF FOR PASSAGE.

ONCE YOU CAME, UNFORTUNATELY, TO THESE SHORES, YOU EXCHANGED CHAINS.

ONE CHAIN FOR ANOTHER.

THESE WOULD BE THE CHAINS OF THE AUCTION.

THIS ONE RIGHT HERE SAYS, "STRONG, HEALTHY AFRICAN NEGROES LOT NUMBER 32."

W.W WILBUR, WHO WAS A SLAVE SELLER FROM 1806.

AND SO YOU HAVE MARKETING AND YOU HAVE BRANDING IN THE SELLING OF HUMANITY.

RASOOL: SO THIS IS AN ADVERTISEMENT.

MICHAEL: THIS IS AN ADVERTISEMENT, ABSOLUTELY.

♪ WELL I'M WORKING MY WAY ♪ RASOOL: HOLDING THOSE CHAINS WAS HEAVY, BUT PASTOR WATERS REMINDS ME THAT TO TRULY APPRECIATE LIBERATION, I HAVE TO GRASP THE REALITY OF BONDAGE.

SAM COLLINS, A LOCAL HISTORIAN, TAKES ME SOMEWHERE I'VE ALWAYS DREADED, THE FINAL DESTINATION FOR THE ENSLAVED.

SAM: WE ARE AT THE VARNER-HOGG PLANTATION IN WEST COLUMBIA, TEXAS.

IN 1834, COLUMBUS PATTON TURNED IT INTO A PRODUCING AGRICULTURAL LOCATION WITH 40 TO 60 ENSLAVED PEOPLE.

RASOOL: FOR THE SLAVE OWNER, WHAT WAS LIFE LIKE HERE?

SAM: WELL, PATTON WAS VERY SUCCESSFUL WITH REGARDS TO RUNNING THE PLANTATION.

THEY PRODUCED A LOT OF SUGAR, AND THE ENSLAVED PEOPLE WERE THE ONES PRODUCING THE WEALTH.

THEY WERE NOT RECEIVING THE BENEFIT, BUT THEY WERE DOING THE WORK AND PRODUCING THE WEALTH OF THIS COUNTY.

AND FOR THE ENSLAVER, THEIR WEALTH WAS IN OWNERSHIP OF THE PEOPLE AND IN WHAT THE PEOPLE PRODUCED.

SO IT IS GRAND, BUT IT'S NOT GREAT.

(SOMBER MUSIC) RASOOL: ATTEMPTS TO DEFEND SLAVERY EXTENDED FAR BEYOND THE PLANTATION AND FOUND JUSTIFICATION IN A MOST UNEXPECTED PLACE, THE CHURCH.

BUT HOW COULD THE CHURCH, WHICH I BELIEVE IS A PLACE TO FIND SPIRITUAL FREEDOM, BECOME A PLACE THAT DEFENDED BONDAGE?

LISA FIELDS: THE FIRST WAY TO BE OKAY WITH TREATING SOMEONE BAD IS TO DEHUMANIZE THEM, AND THEN YOU WON'T FEEL GUILTY FOR IT.

RASOOL: I REACHED OUT TO AN EXPERT, LISA FIELDS, TO MAKE SENSE OF IT ALL, AND A GOOD PLACE TO START WAS THE GOOD BOOK ITSELF.

LISA: ANTI-LITERACY LAWS ARE CREATED REALLY TO KEEP SLAVES FROM READING THE BIBLE FROM COVER TO COVER BECAUSE THEY'RE LIKE, "WE GOTTA STOP THEM FROM READING THE TRUE LIBERATION "OF JESUS CHRIST THROUGH SCRIPTURE "BECAUSE IF THEY SEE THAT, THEY'RE GONNA WANT TO BE FREE "BECAUSE THEY REALIZE THAT WE'RE ALL EQUAL "AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS."

THINK ABOUT THINGS LIKE THE SLAVE BIBLE.

THAT SUPPORTS THE CLAIM THAT CHRISTIANITY IS A WHITE MAN'S RELIGION.

RASOOL: WHAT'S THE SLAVE BIBLE?

LISA: THE SLAVE BIBLE IS A BIBLE CREATED BY WHITE SUPREMACISTS THAT TOOK OUT ALL THE LIBERATION PASSAGES AND PASSAGES THAT POINT TO LIBERATION AND FREEDOM AND GAVE IT TO THE SLAVES AS A MEANS TO SAY, "HEY, THIS IS WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS", TO FURTHER CAUSE THEM TO BE OPPRESSED.

RASOOL: SO YOU'RE SAYING THEY TOOK A BIBLE AND THEN CUT SOME STUFF OUT?

LIKE, WAS THAT JUST A FEW VERSES HERE OR THERE?

LISA: NO, IT WAS A LOT OF THE SCRIPTURE.

THE EXODUS ACCOUNT WAS REMOVED BECAUSE YOU GOTTA THINK ABOUT WHEN NAT TURNER READ SCRIPTURE, IT CAUSED A REVOLT.

THEY DIDN'T WANT THEM TO KNOW THAT THEY WERE ALSO CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD BECAUSE IF THEY WERE ALSO CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD, THEN THEY COULDN'T TREAT THEM THE WAY THEY TREATED THEM.

RASOOL: THE LIES AND DISTORTIONS OF SLAVERY STRETCH BROAD AND FAR LIKE OLD TWISTED BRANCHES INFECTING THE MIND, BODY, AND SOUL OF THE ENSLAVED AND THE ENSLAVER.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO BE ON A SUGAR PLANTATION?

LIKE, WHAT WAS THE WORK LIKE?

SAM: IT WAS TIRING, IT WAS DANGEROUS.

YOU HAD TO DEAL WITH SNAKES AND MOSQUITOES, AND THEY WOULD'VE WORKED AROUND THE CLOCK TRYING TO GET ALL OF THE SUGAR CANE CUT AND PROCESSED.

RASOOL: AND WHAT DID IT LOOK LIKE TO PROCESS IT OUT?

AND WHAT DOES THOSE BOWLS HAVE TO DO WITH THAT?

SAM: THEY HEATED IT UP TO GET ALL THE IMPURITIES AND THINGS OUT FROM BOWL TO BOWL.

THEY KEPT GOING TO SMALLER BOWLS AS THEY HEATED... RASOOL: OH, AND IT WOULD JUST KIND OF GET CONCENTRATED.

SO, SUPER HOT.

SO THEY'RE HEATING THOSE BOWLS UP IN...

ALREADY IN THE HOT SUN, AND THEN ON TOP OF THAT, FIRE UNDERNEATH TO DISTILL IT.

SAM: YEAH.

RASOOL: MAN, THAT'S... THAT'S INTENSE.

SAM: I'M SURE PEOPLE DIED OF HEAT STROKES.

SOMETIME PEOPLE GOT CRUSHED IN THESE MILLS IF THEY ACCIDENTALLY GOT A SHIRT OR SOMETHING CAUGHT AND GOT PULLED THROUGH.

SO THERE WAS A PERSON THAT HAD A RESPONSIBILITY TO STAND IF SOMEBODY GOT CAUGHT, THEIR HAND, TO CUT IT OFF TO SAVE THEIR LIFE BECAUSE IF THAT PERSON WAS NOT THERE, THEY WOULD JUST BE PULLED THROUGH AND LOST.

RASOOL: OH, THAT'S... THAT'S HORRIFIC.

SAM: UNFORTUNATELY, THERE WAS DEATH IN THESE SPACES.

AND PEOPLE DON'T KNOW THE COST TO PRODUCE THIS WEALTH THAT THESE ENSLAVERS AND PLANTATION OWNERS ENJOYED.

(SOMBER MUSIC) RASOOL: WHAT'S THE STORY THAT PEOPLE ARE TELLING THEMSELVES TO MAKE THIS ALL OKAY?

'CAUSE IT FEELS SO HORRIFIC AND SEEMS SO OBVIOUSLY WRONG.

MICHAEL: WELL, ONE OF THE THINGS THEY'RE SAYING IS THAT ENSLAVED PERSONS AND THEIR ENSLAVERS WERE LIKE FAMILY, THAT THEY SHARED MEALS TOGETHER, THAT THEY WORSHIPED TOGETHER, THAT IT REALLY WASN'T AS BAD AS IT MIGHT APPEAR.

HERE'S THE UNFORTUNATE REALITY.

23ANDME RECENTLY DID A STUDY THAT SHOWED EVEN IN GENETIC MAKEUP OF AMERICANS, YOU CAN SEE THE LEGACY OF SEXUAL ASSAULT.

RASOOL: HOW SO?

MICHAEL: THAT SO MANY ENSLAVERS RAPED THEIR SLAVES, THAT IT IS A PART OF THE GENETIC MAKEUP OF AMERICA, THAT THERE WERE MORE BLACK MEN BROUGHT TO AMERICA THAN BLACK WOMEN BECAUSE IT WAS PERCEIVED THAT THE BLACK MEN WOULD BE ABLE TO WORK HARD IN THE FIELDS.

AND YET WHEN YOU SEE THE DNA RECORD, ONE OF THE HIGHEST CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARD PRODUCING THE NEXT GENERATION WOULD BE BETWEEN WHITE EUROPEAN MEN AND BLACK WOMEN.

IT'S IN OUR DNA.

THAT'S HOW DEEP THESE STRUCTURES AND SYSTEMS HAVE HARMED US, THAT WE SEE IT IN THE DNA OF NOT JUST OUR ANCESTORS, BUT OF PEOPLE TODAY.

(TENSE MUSIC) SAM: SO WE ARE NOW HERE AT THE RUINS OF THE SLAVE CABINS, WHERE THE ENSLAVED PEOPLE WOULD'VE COME TO TRY AND GET SOME REST AFTER A LONG DAY OF HARD LABOR.

THERE WOULD'VE BEEN TWO CABINS BACK TO BACK.

FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS WOULD'VE BEEN PLACED... RASOOL: OH, SO THIS ISN'T LIKE ONE HOUSE?

THIS IS TWO.

SAM: YES.

RASOOL: WOW.

SAM: AND AFTER BEING WORKED THE WAY THEY WERE WORKED, THERE REALLY WASN'T MUCH TO DO BUT COME AND LAY DOWN AND HOPE TOMORROW WILL BE BETTER.

AND SOMETIME TOMORROW GOT BETTER AND SOMETIME TOMORROW GOT WORSE.

RASOOL: MAN, HOW DO YOU KEEP HOPE, EVEN IN THE MIDST OF STUDYING THESE DARK THINGS?

SAM: WELL, FOR ME, THIS WORLD IS NOT ETERNAL.

SO THIS IS TEMPORARY.

WE'RE JOURNEYING THROUGH THIS.

SO I HOLD ON TO THE FACT THAT THE INDIVIDUALS SURVIVED, THAT EVEN IN THAT OPPRESSIVE ENVIRONMENT, THEY STAYED ALIVE AND TRIED TO MAKE IT TO THAT NEXT DAY.

AND ULTIMATELY, THEY KNEW THAT THEY WOULD NOT BE HERE FOREVER, THAT ONE DAY THEY, TOO, WOULD TRANSITION TO TRUE FREEDOM.

AND THAT IS MY HOPE.

DON'T WANNA TRANSITION TODAY.

RASOOL: NO, NOT TODAY.

SAM: BUT WHEN I DO, I'LL BE AT PEACE BECAUSE I'LL TRULY BE FREE.

RASOOL: SAM'S ANCESTORS WERE SUSTAINED BY A FAITH THAT SEEMS TO KEEP HIM GOING, TOO.

BACK IN GALVESTON, ASHTON VILLA STANDS IN STARK CONTRAST TO THE REMAINS OF THE SLAVE QUARTERS OF VARNER-HOGG PLANTATION.

THIS PRISTINELY PRESERVED PALACE WAS BUILT WITH THE HANDS OF SLAVES AND REMAINS A MEMORIAL OF PRESTIGE AND POWER.

HERE, I FIND COMPETING NARRATIVES ABOUT GALVESTON AND JUNETEENTH.

AT ONE POINT, IT WAS DECLARED THE PLACE WHERE GENERAL GORDON GRANGER TRIUMPHANTLY READ HIS ORDER ANNOUNCING FREEDOM, BUT THAT ACCOUNT HAS BEEN DEBUNKED AS A MYTH CREATED TO OFFER A MORE HEROIC STORY TO THIS ICONIC STRUCTURE.

AS I SIT WITH THE COMPLEXITIES OF GALVESTON, I REFLECT ON WHY WE OFTEN FIND IT SO TEMPTING TO GLOSS OVER PARTS OF HISTORY TO MAKE IT MORE PALATABLE.

TO BETTER DISCERN FACT FROM FICTION, I MET UP WITH DJ COX, A LOCAL AUTHOR WHO WROTE THE BOOK, "DISPELLING MYTHS ABOUT JUNETEENTH".

DJ: THERE'S THIS PERCEPTION THAT NOBODY KNEW THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION HAD BEEN ISSUED, BUT THEY WERE FULLY AWARE OF IT.

THE ENSLAVED PEOPLE MAY NOT HAVE KNOWN, BUT WHAT THEY KNEW WAS IRRELEVANT BECAUSE THEY COULD NOT EMANCIPATE THEMSELVES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ENSLAVED ALL THAT TIME.

AND SO THE MENTALITY OF THE STATE SEEMED TO HAVE BEEN, IF YOU WANT THEM, YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO COME HERE AND GET THEM 'CAUSE WE'RE NOT GONNA LET THEM GO.

RASOOL: LAWRENCE THOMAS'S FAMILY WERE AMONG THOSE FREED IN GALVESTON ON JUNE 19, 1865, AND HIS FATHER HELPED REINSTITUTE JUNETEENTH CELEBRATIONS 40 YEARS AGO.

HOW LONG HAS YOUR FAMILY BEEN IN GALVESTON?

LAWRENCE: SINCE 1852.

MY GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER WAS A SLAVE TO REBECCA FLUGEL, WHICH WAS MICHEL MENARD'S FOURTH WIFE.

RASOOL: MICHEL MENARD, WHO'S THAT?

LAWRENCE: THAT IS THE FOUNDER OF GALVESTON.

AND HE, AT THAT TIME, HE OWNED MY GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER.

RIGHT NOW, WE'RE AT THE ACTUAL HOUSE THAT MICHEL MENARD AND MY GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER LIVED IN.

THE SLAVE QUARTERS WAS IN THE BACK.

RASOOL: SO THIS IS ACTUALLY WHERE THEY... LAWRENCE: THIS IS ACTUALLY WHERE THEY WERE.

YEAH, THIS IS ACTUALLY THE HOUSE.

RASOOL: DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR FAMILY DID FOR THE MENARDS?

LAWRENCE: NO, I THINK IT WAS JUST A TYPICAL SLAVE.

RASOOL: AND WHAT WAS YOUR GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER'S NAME?

LAWRENCE: HIS NAME WAS JOHN THOMAS FLUGEL MENARD.

RASOOL: OKAY, SO HE TOOK THE NAME OF MENARD.

LAWRENCE: YES, PART OF HOW YOU IDENTIFY A SLAVE.

SO ONCE HE GOT HERE, MENARD GOT AT IT.

MY GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER HAD TWO KIDS.

HE HAD WILLIAM MENARD THOMAS.

HE PUT THE SLAVE NAME BACK IN THERE, SO WE CAN REMEMBER.

RASOOL: WE'RE LITERALLY AT THE HOUSE OF THE FOUNDER OF GALVESTON.

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR FAMILY HELPED BUILD GALVESTON?

LAWRENCE: OH, MOST DEFINITELY, BUT Y'ALL THANK GOD MY DAD'S NOT HERE 'CAUSE YOU WOULDN'T BE INTERVIEWING ME.

YOU'D BE INTERVIEWING HIM.

YOU'D BE GETTING A EAR FULL OF THAT.

HE'D SAY WE BUILT THIS CITY.

RASOOL: TO HEAR, "WE BUILT THIS CITY," REVEALS A WELL-EARNED PRIDE IN THE MIDST OF ALL THIS PAINFUL HISTORY.

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION IS SIGNED AND GOES INTO EFFECT RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF CIVIL WAR IN 1863?

LAWRENCE: CORRECT, CORRECT.

RASOOL: DOES THAT CHANGE ANYTHING FOR YOUR ANCESTORS HERE IN TEXAS?

LAWRENCE: NO, NO, THEY WERE STILL DOING THE SAME THING.

IT WAS NOTHING CHANGED.

AND OF COURSE, DURING THAT TIME, THERE WASN'T NO WIFI OR ALL THAT STUFF GOING ON, SO THEY DID NOT HAVE A CLUE.

THEY DID NOT HAVE A CLUE.

RASOOL: SO WHEN DOES THAT CHANGE?

LAWRENCE: THAT CHANGES IN 1865 WHEN GORDON GRANGER CAME TO GALVESTON, AND THAT'S WHEN THEY ALL GOT A CHANCE TO GO HEAR THAT LITTLE SPEECH.

RASOOL: I'VE NEVER MET SOMEONE LIKE LAWRENCE.

HE KNOWS EXACTLY WHO ENSLAVED HIS FAMILY AND WHEN THEY WERE FREED, JUNE 19TH, 1865.

AS WE SIT ON THE PORCH HIS ANCESTORS BUILT, I CAN FEEL HIS SENSE OF OWNERSHIP OF THE PLACE AND HOW KNOWING HIS HISTORY HAS EMPOWERED HIM AND HIS FAMILY TO CREATE A HOME HERE TO BOTH MOURN THE PAST AND CELEBRATE FREEDOM.

SEMINARY PROFESSOR AND HISTORIAN, CAREY LATIMORE, SHARES WITH ME THE CONTEXT IN WHICH GENERAL GRANGER ARRIVED IN GALVESTON IN 1865, TWO AND A HALF YEARS AFTER THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.

CAREY: THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION IS AN INTERESTING DOCUMENT.

NUMBER ONE, IT'S A PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION, SO ITS LIFESPAN COULD BE THE NEXT PRESIDENT, BUT AT THE SAME TIME, IT EXCLUDES INITIALLY THE STATES THAT DID NOT SECEDE.

AND SO THOSE PEOPLE WHO LIVED IN THOSE STATES WHO WERE ENSLAVED WERE EXCLUDED.

BUT AFTER THAT JANUARY 1ST DATE WHEN IT GOES INTO ORDER WHERE THE UNION ARMY GOES IT'S LIKE A FREEDOM FORCE.

AND WHERE THEY TRAVEL, FREEDOM IS GOING WITH THEM.

DJ: UNFORTUNATELY, THE CURRENTLY ADOPTED TEXAS SCHOOL BOOKS SAY THAT SLAVE OWNERS VOLUNTARILY EMANCIPATED THEIR SLAVES ONCE THEY LEARNED ABOUT THE PROCLAMATION.

WELL, NOW, FIRST OF ALL, THEY ALREADY KNEW ABOUT IT, YOU KNOW?

RASOOL: RIGHT LAWRENCE: AND THEY VOLUNTARILY DID IT 'CAUSE THERE WERE GUNS POINTED AT THEM.

YOU KNOW?

"LET 'EM GO."

THEY SAID, "OKAY, WELL, YOU KNOW, I'M JUST PLAYING."

SHARON GILLINS: THE SOLDIERS DIDN'T COME HERE TO INFORM.

THEY CAME HERE TO ENFORCE.

RASOOL: THAT'S GOOD, THERE YOU GO.

SHARON GILLINS, A GALVESTONIAN GENEALOGIST, BROUGHT ME TO THE EXACT SPOT WHERE THE WORDS OF ABSOLUTE EQUALITY WERE FIRST HEARD.

HER DESCRIPTION OF THE REACTION TO THOSE WORDS HELPED ME VISUALIZE WHAT THAT DAY LOOKED LIKE.

SHARON: YOU CAN JUST IMAGINE, YOU FIND OUT YOU'RE FREE.

THERE'S A PARTY ON EVERY CORNER, OF COURSE.

AS SOON AS THE DOCK WORKERS SAW THAT SHIP PULL IN, THERE WAS DANCING ON THE DOCKS, OF COURSE.

AND THEY WENT OUT, SPREAD OUT AND LET EVERYBODY KNOW THAT THE TROOPS WERE HERE.

RASOOL: THAT MUST HAVE BEEN QUITE A SIGHT, YOU THINK.

DJ: YOU KNOW, WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT THE POPULATION OF GALVESTON WAS SUPPOSEDLY AROUND 10,000 PEOPLE, AND YOU'VE GOT 6,000 SOLDIERS THERE, YOU KNOW, IT'S LIKE ALMOST EVERYBODY HAD THEIR OWN SOLDIERS TO TELL 'EM, "OKAY, LET 'EM GO."

RASOOL: AND THEN 4,000 OF THOSE SOLDIERS WOULD'VE BEEN BLACK.

AND MANY OF THEM, THE AFRICAN AMERICAN POPULATION IN GALVESTON, THEY HAD NEVER SEEN A BLACK SOLDIER.

NOW YOU SEE THOUSANDS OF 'EM.

CAREY: THINK OF IF YOU WERE ON THE FIELD AND YOU SEE THIS, A FORCE OF BLACK MEN ENTER INTO WHERE YOU ARE.

YOU'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THAT.

YOU'VE NEVER SEEN A BLACK PERSON IN ANY SENSE OF AUTHORITY.

BUT NOW, THAT'S INSPIRING, ISN'T IT?

RASOOL: YES.

CAREY: THAT'S TRANSFORMATIVE.

WE THINK THAT BARACK OBAMA BECOMING PRESIDENT, THINK ABOUT WHAT THAT MEANT TO SO MANY AFRICAN AMERICANS.

THEY SAY, TO SEE A BLACK MAN IN THAT POSITION.

I WOULD ARGUE THIS WAS EVEN MORE TRANSFORMATIVE BECAUSE OF WHERE THOSE PEOPLE WERE AT THAT POINT IN TIME.

EVERYTHING THAT THEY HAD TO DO WAS REGULATED, BUT TO SEE THESE MEN WALKING IN AND LIBERATING THEM, THINK ABOUT WHAT THAT MEANS.

(UPBEAT MUSIC) (SOUNDS OF SOLDIERS MARCHING AND SHOUTING) SHARON: AFTER ENSLAVED PEOPLE WERE EMANCIPATED, THEIR FIRST OFFICIAL CELEBRATION THAT TOOK PLACE IN GALVESTON STARTED RIGHT HERE AT THE OLD GALVESTON COURTHOUSE.

RASOOL: RIGHT HERE.

SHARON: RIGHT HERE, AND IT CONSISTED OF A PROCESSIONAL FROM THE OLD GALVESTON COURTHOUSE TO THE COLORED CHURCH ON BROADWAY.

AND THE COLORED CHURCH ON BROADWAY WAS REEDY CHAPEL AME CHURCH.

ON JANUARY 2ND, THERE'S AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE PROCESSIONAL.

IT TALKS ABOUT HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE THERE.

IT TALKS ABOUT THE WEATHER WAS EXTREMELY COLD AND RAINING THAT DAY.

AND THEY TALKED ABOUT THE FACT THAT THE WOMEN WALKED ON THE SIDEWALK AND THE MEN WALKED IN THE STREET, AND THAT THE LADIES' ANKLES WERE EXPOSED BECAUSE THEY HAD TO LIFT THEIR SKIRTS TO KEEP THEM FROM GETTING WET.

RASOOL: SO YOU'RE TELLING ME THE FIRST, LIKE, OFFICIAL CITYWIDE CELEBRATION OF JUNETEENTH HAPPENED IN JANUARY?

SHARON: YES, IT DID.

AND THE REASON IT HAPPENED IN JANUARY IS BECAUSE JANUARY 1ST WAS THE OFFICIAL EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, SO THIS HAPPENED MORE THAN TWO AND A HALF YEARS AFTER THAT.

RASOOL: THIS PROCESSION STARTS HERE AND IT GOES TO REEDY CHAPEL.

WHY THE DECISION FOR THEM TO END THE PROCESSION THERE?

SHARON: I THINK THEY WERE PRAYERFUL AND JUST JOYOUSLY HAPPY THAT GOD HAD ANSWERED THEIR PRAYERS TO GRANT THEM FREEDOM.

AND SO WHAT THEY DID WHEN THEY WENT THERE WAS THEY SANG, THEY PRAYED, THEY GAVE THANKS FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO CHANGE THEIR LIVES.

THEY STILL HAD THE FAITH, EVEN THROUGH ALL THOSE MANY YEARS OF ENSLAVEMENT, THEY HAD THE FAITH THAT THEY WOULD SOON BE FREE.

(BELL CHIMING) (UPBEAT MUSIC) DIANE MOORE: REEDY CHAPEL AME CHURCH IS THE OLDEST AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE STATE OF TEXAS.

THIS CHURCH WAS FOUNDED IN 1848.

THEY SET IT UP AS A PLACE WHERE THEIR SLAVES COULD WORSHIP.

WHEN THE CIVIL WAR WAS OVER, THEY DEEDED THE CHURCH TO THE FORMERLY ENSLAVED PEOPLE.

RASOOL: WOW, SO, I MEAN, 1848, THAT'S SEVERAL DECADES.

DIANE: 174 YEARS AGO, WE JUST CELEBRATED THE 174TH ANNIVERSARY THIS MONTH.

RASOOL: THIS IS REALLY, LIKE, WHERE JUNETEENTH STARTS, IN TERMS OF AS A CELEBRATION.

OF ALL THE PLACES THAT SOMEONE COULD GATHER, WHY A CHURCH?

DIANE: WELL, PEOPLE WHO HAD BEEN COMING TO THIS CHURCH HAD HEARD ABOUT THE ISRAELITES, SLAVERY THERE, AND THIS IS...

THIS REMINDS THEM OF THAT.

AND THEN HARRIET TUBMAN WAS CALLED MOSES.

AND THE SONGS THAT WERE USED TO LET 'EM KNOW, "OKAY, IT'S TIME," ALL THE PEOPLE.

"GO THIS PLACE, GO THIS WAY," AND ALL THAT KIND OF THING.

SO A CHURCH WAS IN THE BACKGROUND.

RASOOL: WHAT DO YOU THINK WAS THE MOOD LIKE?

DIANE: I WOULD THINK THAT PEOPLE WERE VERY EXUBERANT, YOU KNOW?

BECAUSE THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME THEY FOUND OUT THAT THEY WERE FREE.

IN FACT, IT'S SAID THAT FOR THAT 4TH OF JULY, IT WAS THE BLACK PEOPLE THAT CELEBRATED IN 1865, BECAUSE OTHERS CONSIDERED THAT'S PART OF THE UNION.

RASOOL: THAT IS REALLY INTERESTING.

SO, LIKE, 4TH OF JULY, 1865, AS THEY SAY, IT HIT DIFFERENT.

DIANE: IT HIT DIFFERENTLY.

♪ FREEDOM IS THE ONLY THING I NEED ♪ ♪ FREEDOM THE ONLY THING I NEED INDEED ♪ ♪ FREEDOM COME AND FILL ME WITH YOUR TRUTH ♪ ♪ COME AND LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE THROUGH ON ME ♪ RASOOL: AFTER 246 YEARS, AND GENERATIONS OF FAMILIES LIVING THEIR WHOLE LIVES IN BONDAGE, THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY CAME TO AN END AND THE NEW CHAPTER IN THE AMERICAN STORY BEGAN.

♪ I AM FREE INDEED ♪ SHARON: WHAT NEXT?

GENERATIONS OF PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ENSLAVED.

THEY HAD NO AGENCY OVER THEMSELVES.

THEY DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE A NEW LIFE.

THEY HAD TO FIGURE ALL OF THAT OUT.

CAREY: ONCE JUNETEENTH HAPPENED, AND THOSE SLAVES FELT THE TOUCH OF FREEDOM, THE PROMISE OF FREEDOM, THE FULFILLMENT OF THEIR HOPES AND DREAMS, THAT MEANS SOMETHING PSYCHOLOGICALLY.

YOU CAN'T BREAK A PERSON IN THE SAME KIND OF WAY WHEN THEY KNOW WHO THEY ARE, WHEN THEY KNOW WHAT THEIR RIGHTS ARE.

SO THAT'S CHANGED.

WHAT HASN'T CHANGED IS THE RACISM THEY'RE GONNA HAVE TO DEAL WITH, AND THAT MAY HAVE ACTUALLY GOTTEN WORSE.

(MELANCHOLY MUSIC) RASOOL: IT HAD NEVER OCCURRED TO ME THAT THINGS COULD ACTUALLY GET WORSE AFTER THE END OF SLAVERY, BUT A FORM OF RACIAL MOB VIOLENCE REPLACED THE LASH AS THE PRIMARY FORM OF INTIMIDATION THROUGHOUT THE SOUTH.

MICHAEL: IN THE YEARS FOLLOWING EMANCIPATION, THE NUMBER OF LYNCHINGS THAT HAPPENED ALL ACROSS TEXAS WERE AT LEAST 800 WITHIN THAT FIRST YEAR OF FREEDOM.

RASOOL: 800 JUST WITHIN?

MICHAEL: IN THAT FIRST YEAR OF FREEDOM, 800 LYNCHINGS ACROSS THE STATE OF TEXAS.

RASOOL: WHAT DO YOU THINK ACCOUNTS FOR THAT?

I MEAN, THAT'S MORE THAN TWO A DAY.

MICHAEL: EXACTLY, I THINK IT'S A RAGE OF A SYSTEM AND SOCIETY CHANGING AND YOU'RE FEARFUL OF WHAT PLACE YOU'LL HAVE IN THAT SOCIETY.

RASOOL: THAT NEW SOCIETY WAS INITIALLY ENFORCED BY UNION TROOPS, BUT AFTER RECONSTRUCTION, VIOLENCE AND TERROR WERE UTILIZED TO PREVENT BLACKS FROM VOTING AND TO REESTABLISH THE PREVIOUS RACIAL CASTE SYSTEM THAT THRIVED DURING SLAVERY.

MICHAEL: THIS IS A LYNCHING DEPICTION OF WHERE THEY HAVE PLACED AN IMAGE OF A BLACK MAN HANGING ON A TREE IN ART.

YOU GOTTA THINK ABOUT THE MINDSET OF SOCIETY THAT WOULD FIND PLEASURE IN MASS PRODUCING PICTURES OF BLACK DEATH.

AS WE RESEARCH THE BACKS OF SOME OF THESE POSTCARDS, SOME WOULD SAY SOMETHING... RASOOL: OH, THIS IS A POSTCARD.

MICHAEL: OH, THIS IS A POSTCARD.

RASOOL:I JUST THOUGHT THIS WAS A PICTURE.

MICHAEL: OH, NO, THESE WERE MAILED ACROSS THE WORLD.

THESE WERE POPULAR.

RASOOL: THIS IS A MASS PRODUCED... MICHAEL: MASS PRODUCED IMAGE OF BLACK DEATH.

AND ON THE BACK, SOMETIMES PEOPLE WOULD WRITE, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM."

RASOOL: WOW.

MICHAEL: RIGHT?

IN OTHER CARDS, THEY WOULD PROUDLY SAY, "LOOK OVER TO THE RIGHT IN THE BACK CORNER "AND YOU'LL SEE ME.

I WAS THERE."

SO SOMEBODY TOOK THE TIME AND THE EFFORT TO PUT IN FORM OF ART AND TO MASS PRODUCE THIS POSTCARD DEPICTING A BLACK MAN HANGING FROM HIS NECK.

CAREY: THE SOUTH WANTS TO LIMIT FREEDOM TO THE MOST CONSCRIPTED WAY POSSIBLE, IE, THE FREEDOM TO NOT BE A SLAVE, BUT AS FAR AS CITIZENSHIP, NO, VOTING, NO, REAL RIGHTS, NO.

BLACK CODES ARE ENACTED.

SOME AREAS HAD BLACK CODES THAT SAY THAT BLACK PEOPLE CANNOT COME INTO THIS AREA, OR THAT BLACK PEOPLE HAD TO WORK IN CERTAIN TYPES OF OCCUPATIONS.

THEY COULD NOT WORK IN THESE TYPES OF OCCUPATIONS.

SO THESE ARE THE KINDS OF LAWS THAT RESTRICT BLACK MOBILITY.

YOU COULD HAVE CURFEWS.

SO ALL OF THESE KINDS OF THINGS ARE ENACTED TO KEEP BLACKS IN THEIR PLACE.

AND IF YOU LOOK AT GRANGER'S PROCLAMATION, IT SAYS GO BACK TO WORK, DOESN'T IT?

RASOOL: YES.

CAREY: SO WHAT WAS RACIALIZED SLAVERY NOW BECOMES ECONOMIC BECAUSE SLAVERY'S GOING TO BE REPLACED BY SOMETHING THAT'S SIMILAR, YET SOMEWHAT DIFFERENT.

SHARON: THE FORMERLY ENSLAVED PEOPLE ARE URGED TO REMAIN WITH THEIR FORMER OWNERS AND WORK FOR WAGES.

OF COURSE, SOME PEOPLE DID NOT HAVE THE MONEY TO PAY THEIR FORMERLY ENSLAVED PEOPLE, AND HERE'S WHERE YOU SEE THE SHARECROPPING SYSTEM COME INTO PLAY.

RASOOL: NOW, THAT SEEMS TO BE AN IMMEDIATELY, I MEAN, PROBLEMATIC IS A GENTLE WAY OF PUTTING IT, ALMOST UNTENABLE SITUATION, THAT YOU'RE TELLING PEOPLE TO NOW WORK WILLINGLY FOR PEOPLE WHO FORMALLY ENSLAVED THEM.

SHARON: YES, BUT IF YOU HAVE A FAMILY, THEN YOU HAVE A MOTIVATION TO STAY.

AND THE QUESTION IS, DO I GO OUT AND STRIKE OUT ON MY OWN?

RASOOL: THOUGH THERE WAS STILL CHALLENGES AND THE UNCERTAINTY OF THE GREAT UNKNOWN, THE GOOD NEWS OF FREEDOM SPREAD LIKE WILDFIRE THROUGHOUT TEXAS AND TOOK ROOT UP THE ROAD IN HOUSTON, THEY CALLED IT FREEDMEN'S TOWN.

SO TO LEARN MORE, I MET UP WITH TWO DESCENDANTS OF THE FOUNDER OF FREEDMEN'S TOWN, REVEREND JACK YATES, MRS. JACQUELINE BOSTIC, AND HER DAUGHTER JACQUELINE BOSTIC MCELROY.

WE MET AT EMANCIPATION PARK, A PLOT OF LAND, REVEREND JACK YATES HELPED BUY TO INAUGURATE THE FIRST JUNETEENTH CELEBRATIONS IN HOUSTON.

BOSTIC; WELL, MY GREAT GRANDFATHER AND HIS WIFE, THEY HAD TEN CHILDREN.

THE PERSON WHO OWNED HIM AS A SLAVE THAT STAYED IN VIRGINIA, FREED... HIS SLAVES WERE FREED.

BUT THE SLAVE OWNER THAT OWNED MY GREAT GRANDMOTHER, HE WOULD NOT FREE HIS SLAVES.

HE CAME TO TEXAS.

SO IN ORDER FOR MY GREAT GRANDFATHER TO TAKE CARE OF HIS FAMILY AND HIS CHILDREN, HE HAD TO GO BACK INTO SLAVERY IN ORDER TO COME TO TEXAS.

RASOOL: WAIT, YOU'RE SAYING THAT HIS SLAVE OWNER FREED HIM?

BOSTIC: YES.

RASOOL: AND INSTEAD OF JUST ENJOY FREEDOM, YOUR GREAT-GRANDFATHER, HE JUST, LIKE, CHOSE TO BE BACK INTO SLAVERY TO STAY TOGETHER?

BOSTIC: AS A SLAVE.

RASOOL: OH MY GOSH, THAT IS A STORY.

(ALL LAUGHING) BOSTIC: WHEN 1865 ROLLS AROUND AND THE SOLDIERS AND EVERYBODY COMES INTO THESE AREAS AND TELLS THEM THAT THEY'RE NOW FREE, MY GREAT GRANDFATHER TOOK HIS WIFE AND HIS CHILDREN AND HE MOVED.

THEY CAME TO HOUSTON.

BOSTIC-MCELROY: VENTURING OUT ON THEIR OWN WAS THE UNKNOWN, THE UNSEEN.

AND SO IT TOOK FAITH TO SAY, NO, I'M GONNA DO THIS ON MY OWN.

AND I BELIEVE WHAT THEY DID IS EVERYTHING THAT THEY WERE DOING FOR SOMEBODY ELSE, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, THEY DID IT FOR THEMSELVES AND MADE A WAY.

BOSTIC: WHEN THEY CAME TO HOUSTON, THERE WERE NO INSTITUTIONS, NO SCHOOLS, NO CHURCHES FOR THEM HERE.

AND SO HE WENT ABOUT WHAT WE WOULD CALL TODAY, DEVELOPING WHAT WAS KNOWN AS FREEDMEN'S TOWN.

AND HE ALSO STARTED A CHURCH.

RASOOL: WHEN HE ARRIVED, THERE WERE NO INSTITUTIONS FOR HIS PEOPLE, SO REVEREND JACK YATES BUILT THEM.

HE STARTED WITH ANTIOCH MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH, SO I ASKED THE CURRENT SHEPHERD OF THE FLOCK, PASTOR LOU, TO SHOW ME AROUND.

PASTOR LOU: THIS IS OUR SANCTUARY.

VERY INTRICATE IN ITS DESIGN, VERY PURPOSED IN ITS LAYOUT.

AS A MATTER OF FACT, YOU KNOW, WHEN YOU LOOK AT THESE PEWS, WE SIT AND OUR CONGREGATIONS SIT IN THE SAME PEWS THAT THEY BUILT BACK THEN.

THEY'RE STILL GIFTED WITH THE TALENTS THAT THEY HAD IN BUILDING THIS COUNTRY.

NOW, THEY'RE POURING THE SAME TALENT INTO THIS SANCTUARY AND GIVING GOD THE GLORY.

ONE OF THE THINGS THAT WE'RE MOST PROUD OF ABOUT THIS SANCTUARY IS IF YOU LOOK UP AT OUR CEILING STRUCTURE, YOU'LL SEE A CROSS THAT WAS MADE IN THE PITCHES AND THE CUTS OF OUR ROOF.

AND SO TO HAVE THIS IDEA OF CHRIST'S OUTSTRETCHED ARMS COVERING US, SERVING AS A REMINDER THAT IT WAS THROUGH HIS DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION THAT WE'RE EVEN HERE, I JUST FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT THESE GENTLEMEN, THESE MEN AND WOMEN WERE LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT TO CREATE A BUILDING THAT IS STILL PREACHING TODAY.

RASOOL: THAT IMAGE OF JESUS, TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THAT.

PASTOR LOU: I LOVE THIS DEPICTION OF JESUS CHRIST, OUR LORD AND SAVIOR.

THOUGH BIBLICALLY CORRECT IN ITS INTERPRETATION AND DISPLAY, THE REFLECTION OF THAT STORY, OF COURSE, IS NOT CORRECT.

RASOOL: WHEN YOU SAY THE REFLECTION ISN'T CORRECT, WHAT ARE YOU REFERRING TO?

PASTOR LOU: WHEN I SAY REFLECTION IS NOT CORRECT, I'M SAYING THAT THE DEPICTION OF JESUS AS A EUROPEAN IN COLOR IS NOT CORRECT FOR FIRST CENTURY HISTORY, BUT WHEN WE LOOK AT THAT DEPICTION OF JESUS AND WE TIE IT TO OUR OWN SLAVE HISTORY, IT WAS A WAY OF CONTROL THAT JESUS IS WHITE.

AND SO WE LEAVE IT AS A TEACHING TOOL TO SHOW THAT COMING OUT OF SLAVERY, THIS IS ALL WHAT WE KNEW AT THE TIME.

BUT THAT DIDN'T LET JACK YATES, IT DIDN'T DISCOURAGE HIM FROM WORKING WITH WHITE FOLKS AND BLACK FOLKS.

WE PUT TOGETHER AND POURED IN TO BUILD THIS CHURCH.

RASOOL: YOU THINK THERE'S A LESSON FOR THAT FOR US TODAY?

PASTOR LOU: ABSOLUTELY, SO THIS NARRATIVE THAT YOU HEAR TODAY, THAT WHITE IS SEPARATE FROM BLACK AND ALL OF THE NOISE AND THE COMMOTION BEHIND THAT, IT'S LIKE JACK, IN READING SCRIPTURE, UNDERSTOOD THAT ALL MEN WERE CREATED EQUAL.

(MID TEMPO MUSIC) LISA: THEY DIDN'T GIVE GLORY TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

THEY GAVE GLORY TO GOD.

AND SO WHY NOT BUILD A CHURCH TO HONOR WHO GAVE YOU FREEDOM?

YOU KNOW, THEY ALWAYS HAD THESE SECRET CHURCHES THAT THEY WOULD GO TO OUTSIDE OF WHAT THEIR SLAVE MASTER PROVIDED.

AND IT'S LIKE, WE WANNA BUILD A SPACE THAT LETS US WORSHIP THE GOD WHO LIBERATES US FULLY AS OURSELVES WITHOUT BEING TOLD THIS VIEW OF GOD THAT'S NOT TRUE TO SCRIPTURE.

AND SO ESSENTIALLY, I THINK BLACK PEOPLE PRESERVED CHRISTIANITY FOR AMERICA.

RASOOL: OKAY, YOU GOTTA BREAK THAT DOWN, THAT WAS HEAVY.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

LISA: IT WAS BLACK CHRISTIANS WHO SAID, NO, THIS IS THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL.

THIS IS THE GOSPEL MESSAGE APART FROM SUPREMACY.

THIS IS WHAT JESUS CAME TO DO.

AND WE PRESERVED THAT MESSAGE WHEN WHITE SUPREMACISTS TRIED TO DISTORT IT, THAT WE KEPT THE MESSAGE OF THE GOSPEL ALIVE.

RASOOL: SO YOU'RE SAYING, LIKE, THE REVEREND JACK YATES, WHO BUILT A CHURCH AND BUILT A COMMUNITY, HE'S NOT JUST DOING THIS FOR BLACK FOLK, BUT IT'S ALSO BEING A CORRECTIVE THAT IS A REFORMATION, IN A SENSE, OF THE CHURCH IN AMERICA AS A WHOLE.

LISA: YEAH, BECAUSE IF THEY DIDN'T NEED CORRECTED, ONCE WE WERE LIBERATED WE WOULD JUST GO BACK TO THEIR CHURCHES, BUT WE KNEW THAT THERE'S A TRUE CHRISTIANITY THAT NEEDS TO BE REPRESENTED TO OUR PEOPLE THAT'S HOLISTIC, THAT'S SOCIALLY ENGAGED, THAT EMPOWERS THEM ECONOMICALLY, EDUCATIONALLY.

WE ARE NOT JUST CONCERNED WITH THE SOUL, WE'RE CONCERNED WITH EVERY ASPECT OF THE PERSON.

IT'S A HOLISTIC SALVATION.

SO I THINK REVEREND YATES HAD THE FORESIGHT TO SEE WE NEED TO MAKE SURE THAT THE CHURCH IS LEADING OUR PEOPLE IN THIS AREA.

SO IT'S BLACK DENOMINATIONS THAT ARE STARTING THESE SCHOOLS.

AND SO OUR HBCUS AND THE CHURCH ARE DEEPLY CONNECTED.

RASOOL: THIS HOLISTIC VISION OF REVEREND YATES AND SO MANY OTHERS FUELED THE DRIVE TO HEAL MIND, BODY, AND SOUL.

ONE THING I READ SOMEWHERE THAT THIS WHOLE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION THAT YOUR GREAT GRANDFATHER STARTED, THIS WAS ALL THAT THERE WAS TO EDUCATE THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY, WAS THESE INITIATIVES.

THERE WAS NO PUBLIC SCHOOL.

BOSTIC-MCELROY: RIGHT, JACK YATES KNEW THE VALUE OF EDUCATION, SO HE EDUCATED HIS PEOPLE.

BOSTIC: HE WOULD TEACH THEM DIFFERENT THINGS, HOW TO READ, HOW TO WRITE, HOW TO DO THE THINGS THEY NEEDED TO START THEIR OWN BUSINESSES.

AND HE MADE SURE THAT THE PEOPLE WHO CAME INTO HOUSTON FROM THE OUTER AREAS AS FORMER SLAVES HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN AND HOW TO PROVIDE FOR THEMSELVES.

♪ ONCE UPON A TIME BUT NOT LONG AGO ♪ ♪ BEFORE THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT ♪ ♪ AND THE NEW JIM CROW ♪ ♪ SIT BACK I'LL INTRODUCE YOU TO A WONDERFUL PLACE ♪ ♪ IN EVERY STATE CALLED MY HOOD USA ♪ ♪ LIFE WASN'T PERFECT ♪ ♪ BUT THEY DID WHAT THEY COULD ♪ ♪ AND PEOPLE TOOK PRIDE IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD ♪ ♪ THEY HAD DOCTORS AND LAWYERS ♪ ♪ ARTISTS BARBERS AND TEACHERS ♪ ♪ ENTREPRENEURS, POLITICIANS AND PREACHERS ♪ ♪ STABLE UNIVERSITIES, SPORTS LEAGUES AND BANKS ♪ ♪ WE INVEST IN TRADE HERE ♪ ♪ 'CAUSE IN OTHER PLACES YOU CAN'T ♪ ♪ BLACK OWNED FROM THE CRADLE TO THE COFFIN ♪ ♪ BEFORE THE NBA ♪ ♪ WE HAD A HISTORY OF BALLING ♪ ♪ DURHAM, GREENWOOD, ATLANTA, SWEET AUBURN, QUAKERTOWN ♪ ♪ AND THIRD WARD HOUSTON BUT HERE'S A CAUTION ♪ ♪ WHY THEY WANTED THEIR TURN ♪ ♪ AND JUST EARN AND MAKE A LIVING ♪ ♪ SOME JUST WANTED THEM TO BURN, BABY, BURN ♪ ♪ IT WAS VICIOUS ♪ ♪ IF THE CITY WASN'T CONSUMED BY UNEXPLAINED FLAMES ♪ ♪ IT WOULD EVENTUALLY CHANGE DUE TO IMMINENT DOMAIN ♪ ♪ HOW CAN YOU OWN A HOME IF YOU CAN'T GET A LOAN ♪ ♪ AND THE POWERS THAT BE JUST RED LINE YOUR ZONE?

♪ RASOOL: FREEDMAN'S TOWN FLOURISHED UNDER THE SPIRITUAL AND CIVIC LEADERSHIP OF REVEREND JACK YATES AND OTHERS.

THE JOURNEY FROM ENSLAVED TO SELF-SUSTAINED WAS REMARKABLE.

THEY TURNED A BAYOU INTO A BUSTLING HOME BASE OF BLACK EXCELLENCE AND PERSISTED EVEN AFTER DECADES OF POLICIES LIKE REDLINING AND SEGREGATION.

BUT ALL OF THESE FACTORS FINALLY TOOK THEIR TOLL AS THE CITY BUILT THE HIGHWAY THAT RAN RIGHT THROUGH IT.

BUSINESSES CLOSED, THE NEIGHBORHOOD WAS DIVIDED, AND PEOPLE BEGAN MOVING TO OTHER PLACES TO FIND FREEDOM.

THOUGH MUCH OF ITS GLORIOUS PAST IS FADED.

RESIDENTS LIKE DEBRA ARE PRESERVING ITS RICH HISTORY AND RESTORING ITS FORMER GLORY.

DEBRA: THERE'S JUST A FEW LEFT.

THERE WERE 550 STRUCTURES WHEN THE 1985 NATIONAL REGISTERED APPLICATION WAS ADMINISTERED.

AND NOW THEY'RE LESS THAN 50 STRUCTURES THAT ARE LEFT.

RASOOL: LIKE THESE?

DEBRA: TOTAL.

550 STRUCTURES TOTAL.

RASOOL: JUST 20 YEARS AGO.

DEBRA: YES, GONE.

RASOOL: THEY REMAINED FOR OVER, YOU KNOW, LIKE, ALMOST 100 YEARS.

DEBRA: RIGHT, SO THEY'VE BEEN DEMOLISHED OR BURNED EITHER WAY.

RASOOL: WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR YOU THAT THESE STRUCTURES REMAIN AND THE HISTORY IS PRESERVED?

DEBRA: WELL, THESE STRUCTURES TELL THE PERSISTENCE OF BLACK PEOPLE WHO HAD TO DEAL WITH JIM CROW RECONSTRUCTION, SO THIS IS A STORY OF RESISTANCE, AND PERSISTENCE AND ACCOMPLISHMENT.

RASOOL: SO A POWERFUL STORY.

DEBRA: YES, IT IS.

AND IT NEEDS TO BE HERE FOR THE YOUNG PEOPLE TO LEARN IT.

I'M A NATIVE HOUSTONIAN.

I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT IT IN SCHOOL.

I WAS 40 YEARS OLD WHEN I LEARNED ABOUT THIS HISTORY.

IT WASN'T IN MY SCHOOL BOOKS, AT ALL.

RASOOL: WHAT WAS THE IMPACT ON YOU WHEN YOU DISCOVERED THIS HISTORY?

DEBRA: I WAS VERY SURPRISED, AND I WAS ALSO PROUD WHEN I FOUND OUT WHAT THESE PEOPLE ACCOMPLISHED.

RASOOL: DEBRA'S PRIDE IN FREEDMEN'S TOWN PROMPTS HER TO PRESERVE ITS PAST AND EDUCATE THE NEXT GENERATION, BUT THE PERSISTENCE DEBRA REFERENCES REVEALS THAT IN MANY WAYS, THE STRUGGLE FOR ABSOLUTE EQUALITY NEVER ENDED.

AND WHILE NEIGHBORHOODS LIKE FREEDMAN'S TOWN FOUGHT TO FLOURISH OR EVEN SURVIVE, ANOTHER BATTLE WAS TAKING PLACE THAT WASN'T JUST ABOUT GOVERNMENT POLICIES, BUT THE DARKNESS OF THE HUMAN SOUL.

MICHAEL: MY FRIEND, THIS IS AN AUTHENTIC KU KLUX KLAN HOOD AND ROBE FROM THE SECOND RISE OF THE KLAN IN 1915.

THIS IS CALLED A KU KLUX KLAN HERO CROSS.

THIS WAS GIVEN TO MEMBERS THAT WERE PART OF THE BEGINNING OF THE KLAN IN 1866 TO HONOR THEM DURING THE SECOND RISE IN 1915.

ON THE BACK OF HERE, YOU SEE A GENTLEMAN BY THE NAME OF WILLIAM JOSEPH SIMMONS.

HE WAS THE LEADER, IMPERIAL WIZARD OF THE SECOND RISE.

HE WAS A METHODIST MINISTER.

IN OCTOBER OF 1915, HE TOOK A GROUP OF MEN ATOP OF STONE MOUNTAIN, THEY BUILT AN ALTAR, PUT DOWN AN AMERICAN FLAG, A SWORD AND A BIBLE.

AND WILLIAM JOSEPH SIMMONS SAID HE HEARD THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN REJOICING AS THEY BEGAN THIS NEW MOVEMENT OF THE KLAN.

NOW, YOU THINK ABOUT THAT, YOU HAVE A METHODIST MINISTER WHO IS FOUNDING A NEW WHITE SUPREMACIST ORGANIZATION THAT IS BREEDING DEATH AND DESTRUCTION ACROSS THIS COUNTRY.

HE HAD A VERY, VERY UNIQUE VIEW OF WHAT THE SCRIPTURES DECLARED CONCERNING HIS CALLING IN THE WORLD.

AND THAT'S BEEN OUR CHALLENGE.

YOU CAN MAKE THE BIBLE SAY WHATEVER YOU WANT IT TO SAY TO JUSTIFY WHATEVER YOU WANT IT TO JUSTIFY.

AND SO THAT'S BEEN THE CHALLENGE THROUGHOUT OUR HISTORY OF INDIVIDUALS SHIFTING AND TWISTING THE SCRIPTURES TO MOTIVATE AND TO GIVE COVER FOR THEIR OWN DESIRES.

RASOOL: THERE'S A FEW DATES THAT YOU MENTIONED THAT JUST DIDN'T SEEM LIKE A COINCIDENCE.

1865, FREEDOM COMES TO TEXAS.

YOU SAID 1866 IS THE RISE OF THE KLAN.

MICHAEL: THE KLAN BEGINS AS A COUNTER MOVE TO THIS ERA OF RECONSTRUCTION.

RASOOL: SO IT WAS VERY MUCH A REACTION TO JUNETEENTH IN TEXAS.

MICHAEL: ABSOLUTELY.

RASOOL: NOW, WHAT ABOUT 1915?

WHAT'S THE SIGNIFICANCE?

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THAT TIME?

MICHAEL: 1915, "THE BIRTH OF A NATION".

RASOOL: THE MOVIE.

MICHAEL: THE MOVIE BECOMES THE FIRST FILM SHOWN AT THE WHITE HOUSE.

THE HISTORY TELLS US THAT PEOPLE LEFT FROM THE MOVIE THEATERS AND WENT TO BLACK COMMUNITIES AND BEGAN TO ENACT ALL KINDS OF ATROCITIES MOTIVATED BY THAT FORM OF RACIAL PROPAGANDA.

THE TENSION OF THAT WHOLE MOVIE IS OF A WHITE MAN IN BLACK FACE CHASING A WHITE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS THROUGH THE FOREST, OF COURSE, WITH THE IDEA THAT HE'S GOING TO ASSAULT HER.

SHE JUMPS TO HER DEATH, AN HONOR KILLING, SAYING THAT IT'S BETTER THAT SHE DIE THAN TO FALL INTO THE HANDS OF A BLACK MAN.

AND IT'S THE KU KLUX KLAN THAT RIDES IN AS THE KNIGHTS, AS THE HEROES TO SAVE THE DAY, TO SAVE THE NATION AND TO PURGE AMERICA FROM THE PRESENCE OF BLACK PEOPLE IN PUBLIC LIFE.

RASOOL: THOUGH ITS PLOT WAS BASED ON RACIST FANTASY, "BIRTH OF A NATION" BECAME THE FIRST BLOCKBUSTER FILM, AND ITS POPULARITY REKINDLED THE TERRORISM OF THE KU KLUX KLAN, WHICH SOUGHT TO REINSTITUTE THE CONTROL OVER BLACK BODIES THAT WAS LOST AT THE END OF SLAVERY.

THE CYCLE CONTINUED.

(SOLEMN MUSIC CONTINUES) FROM THE SLAVE BIBLE, TO THE BIRTH OF THE KLAN, TO JIM CROW SEGREGATION, THE MISUSE OF SCRIPTURE TO PROP UP RACISM HAS DEVASTATED MANY AND LEFT THE LEGACY WE STILL STRUGGLE TO BE FREE FROM.

THE PAST IS INDEED ALWAYS PRESENT WITH US.

BUT RIGHTEOUS EFFORTS TO RESIST RACISM ALSO HAVE PERSISTED AFTER EMANCIPATION AND THOSE EFFORTS GAINED AN UNEXPECTED CHAMPION FROM A WOMAN WELL INTO HER 90'S, SMALL IN STATURE, BUT SO LARGE IN HER IMPACT THAT SHE HAS BECOME KNOWN AS THE GRANDMOTHER OF JUNETEENTH.

BUT MS. OPAL LEE'S FIRST MEMORY OF JUNE 19TH SHOCKINGLY REVEALS HOW EVEN A CENTURY AFTER EMANCIPATION, TEXAS WAS FAR FROM DEMONSTRATING THE ABSOLUTE EQUALITY OF GENERAL ORDER III.

MS. OPAL: AND WOULD YOU BELIEVE THE PAPER SAID ON THE 19TH OF JUNE, 500 PEOPLE GATHERED?

RASOOL: WAIT, HOLD ON, SO THE 500 PEOPLE THAT GATHERED, THIS WASN'T A JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION?

MS. OPAL: NOT BY A LONG SHOT.

RASOOL: THEY GATHERED IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE.

MS. OPAL: YEAH.

RASOOL: YOUR FAMILY'S HOUSE.

MS. OPAL: HMM, HMM.

RASOOL: WHITE PEOPLE, TO INTIMIDATE THE FAMILY.

MS. OPAL: POLICE COULDN'T CONTROL THE MOB.

AND WHEN MY DAD CAME WITH A GUN, THE POLICE TOLD HIM, "IF YOU BUST A CAP, WE'LL LET THIS MOB HAVE YOU."

WELL, MY PARENTS SENT US TO FRIENDS' SEVERAL BLOCKS AWAY, AND THEY LEFT UNDER THE COVER OF DARKNESS.

THOSE PEOPLE BURNED THE FURNITURE, DRUG OUT STUFF, BURNED THE PLACE.

AND MY PARENTS NEVER, EVER SAID ANYTHING TO US ABOUT IT, NEVER.

THEY WORKED, AND WORKED, AND WORKED AND BOUGHT ANOTHER HOME.

RASOOL: DO YOU KNOW, WHY DID THE MOB COME UP TO YOUR PARENTS' HOUSE?

MS. OPAL: WE WERE IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD AND THEY DIDN'T WANT US THERE, AND THAT WAS THEIR WAY OF SAYING, "GET OUT."

NOT KNOCK ON YOUR DOOR AND SAY, "WE DON'T NEED YOU HERE, "BUT WE'LL SHOW YOU."

SAM: MAYA ANGELOU HAS, "HISTORY, DESPITE ITS WRENCHING PAIN, "CANNOT BE UNLIVED, "BUT IF FACED WITH COURAGE, NEED NOT BE LIVED AGAIN."

SO WHAT WE HAVE TO DO AS A COUNTRY AND AS INDIVIDUALS, AS WE CONTINUE TO TELL THESE STORIES, WE'RE DOING REPAIR WORK TO OUR AMERICAN HOME.

THIS AMERICAN HOME HAS BAD WIRING, BAD PLUMBING, FOUNDATION IS OFF.

AND THIS GENERATION IS ON THE DEED AS OWNERS, SO IT IS OUR JOB TO REWIRE THE HOUSE, REPLUMB IT, FIX THE FOUNDATION SO THAT FUTURE GENERATIONS DON'T HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE PROBLEMS WE'RE DEALING WITH.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED, WE HAVE DEFERRED MAINTENANCE ON THE BUILDING AND IT'S TIME FOR US TO DO THE REPAIR WORK AND BECOME NEW AGAIN SO THAT THE OLD THINGS WILL BE BEHIND US AND WE BECOME A BETTER SOCIETY, AND WE BECOME A BETTER STATE, A BETTER COUNTRY, AND HOPEFULLY A BETTER WORLD BY GETTING THIS AMERICAN HOUSE FIXED.

MICHAEL: I THINK YOU CAN BE DISTANT FROM MOVEMENT.

WE HAVE NOT FULLY EMBRACED THE COMMAND OF GOD TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.

WHEN YOU LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF, THAT'S NOT JUST A CHILD OVER THERE THAT'S HURT, THAT'S MY CHILD.

THAT'S NOT JUST A COMMUNITY OVER THERE THAT'S OSTRACIZED, THAT'S MY COMMUNITY.

YOU FEEL THE PAIN THROUGH PROXIMITY.

THAT'S OUR CALL, IS TO BE MORE LIKE THE CHRIST.

THAT'S THE JESUS WE ESPOUSE, THAT'S THE JESUS WE UPLIFT WHO CAME TO LIBERATE THE CAPTIVE, OPEN UP THE EYES SO THAT WE ALL SEE AND BRING EQUITY TO THE WORLD THROUGH JUBILEE.

MS. OPAL: I'D FINISHED COLLEGE, TAUGHT SCHOOL, HAD A FAMILY, FOOD BANK THAT WE DISCOVERED AND A FARM, THEY CALLED IT OPAL'S FARM.

BUT I WAS ABOUT 89 YEARS OLD AND I FELT LIKE I HADN'T DONE ENOUGH.

AND I FELT THERE OUGHT TO BE SOMETHING ELSE I CAN DO.

I DECIDED IF A LITTLE OLD LADY IN TENNIS SHOES WAS WALKING UP AND DOWN THE HIGHWAY, SOMEBODY WOULD PAY ATTENTION.

AND SO FROM THE CHURCH, I WALKED TWO AND A HALF MILES TO SYMBOLIZE THAT THE ENSLAVED IN TEXAS DIDN'T KNOW THEY WERE FREE FOR TWO AND A HALF YEARS AFTER THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.

I WALKED FROM FORT WORTH, TO ARLINGTON, TO GRAND PRAIRIE, TO DALLAS, TO JOPPA, TO BALCH SPRINGS.

MY TEAM SAYS, "YOU'LL ONLY GO WHERE YOU ARE INVITED "AND WHERE THEY HAVE JUNETEENTH CELEBRATIONS."

WELL, I WAS INVITED ALL OVER THESE UNITED STATES, (UPBEAT MUSIC) AND PEOPLE WERE SO NICE.

I CAN'T BEGIN TO TELL YOU GOING TO EACH OF THOSE STATES, MEETING PEOPLE WHO, TOO, WANTED JUNETEENTH TO BECOME A HOLIDAY.

(UPBEAT MUSIC CONTINUES) MY GRANDDAUGHTER GOT THE WORD TO GO TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND THAT PRESIDENT BIDEN WAS SIGNING A BILL TO MAKE JUNETEENTH A FEDERAL HOLIDAY.

I'M STILL ON CLOUD NINE.

I COULD HAVE DONE A HOLY DANCE, BUT THE KIDS SAYS WHEN I TRY THAT, I'M TWERKING, WHATEVER THAT IS, SO I DIDN'T TRY.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) LAWRENCE: I GOT A TELEPHONE CALL FROM THE WHITE HOUSE AND IT SAID, "WELL, WE HEARD THAT "YOUR DAD WAS KIND OF SIGNIFICANT."

AND THEN WE TOLD THEM THE HISTORY.

AND ONCE WE DID THAT, THEY SAID, "HOW FAST CAN YOU GET TO WASHINGTON DC?"

SO ME AND MY DAUGHTER GOT ON THE PLANE.

WE WENT TO WASHINGTON AND WE WERE JUST GETTING A TOUR THROUGH THE WHITE HOUSE, AND IT WAS JUST TOTALLY AMAZING.

TOTALLY, TOTALLY AMAZING.

TALKED TO THE PRESIDENT.

I TOLD HIM MY STORY.

I CRIED QUITE A BIT, AND IT WAS VERY, VERY EMOTIONAL.

IT REALLY WAS.

MATTER OF FACT, THE MOST IMPORTANT PART WAS I THOUGHT ABOUT MY DAD, HOW HE FOUGHT FOR THIS.

RASOOL: WOW, SO HE DIDN'T GET TO SEE IT, BUT YOU GET TO LIVE IT AND EXPERIENCE THAT.

LAWRENCE: AND THAT WAS THE JOY.

WE FELT LIKE WHEN WE GOT THERE, WHEN ME AND MY DAUGHTER GOT THERE, WE CRIED OUR LITTLE CRY AND IT WAS THAT WE WERE HERE FOR HIM.

RASOOL: THE JOURNEY FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM HAS BEEN LONG AND ARDUOUS, AND EACH GENERATION HAS HAD TO PICK UP FROM THE LAST, PASSING THE LEGACY ON, AND THAT'S WHY THE NATIONAL RECOGNITION MEANS SO MUCH TO LAWRENCE AND MANY OTHERS.

IT GIVES VALIDATION TO THE STRUGGLE OF THEIR ANCESTORS AND OPPORTUNITY TO CELEBRATE DIVINE DELIVERANCE OF BOTH BODY AND SOUL.

IT'S A GIFT OF HOPE TO THEIR CHILDREN, GRANDCHILDREN, AND PEOPLE LIKE ME.

MS. OPAL: LOOK AT THAT, THE SIGNING OF THE BILL INTO LAW.

I FELT LIKE WE HAD ACCOMPLISHED SOMETHING.

AND SO THIS IS JUST A LITTLE PUSH AND THE YOUNGSTERS COMING ON ARE GONNA MAKE IT A TIDAL WAVE, AND EVERYBODY IS GOING TO UNDERSTAND THAT FREEDOM IS FOR ALL OF US.

CAREY: WE ARE A COMMUNITY, NOT JUST BLACK PEOPLE, BLACK, WHITE, HISPANIC, ASIAN, ALL OF US ARE A COMMUNITY.

AND WHEN ONE BECOMES MORE FREE, WE ALL BECOME A LITTLE MORE FREE.

AND ON JUNE 19TH, 1865, SOMEBODY GOT FREEDOM.

SOMEBODY'S CHILD GOT FREEDOM, SOMEBODY'S MAMA GOT FREEDOM, SOMEBODY'S GRANDMAMA GOT FREEDOM.

AND WHEN THAT HAPPENED, THAT'S LIKE AN EXODUS EXPERIENCE ALL OVER AGAIN.

♪ I'M A VESSEL ♪ MS. OPAL: PEOPLE WANT TO THINK OF IT AS A BLACK THING OR A TEXAS THING, BUT IT'S NOT.

IT'S FREEDOM FOR EVERYBODY.

AND I ADVOCATE CELEBRATING FREEDOM FROM THE 19TH OF JUNE TO THE 4TH OF JULY.

♪ BRUISED AND BATTERED BUT NOT BROKEN ♪ ♪ BROUGHT IN SIN BUT FROM SIN SET FREE ♪ RASOOL: THE STORY OF JUNETEENTH IS TEACHING ME THAT AN END OF SLAVERY, NO MATTER HOW MESSY AND INCOMPLETE, IS WORTHY OF CELEBRATION.

IT IS AN INVITATION TO MEET DESPAIR WITH HOPE, OPPRESSION WITH JUSTICE, AND HATE WITH LOVE.

AND EVEN WHEN IT SEEMS UNATTAINABLE, MY FAITH CALLS ME TO NEVER STOP FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM.

♪ THANK YOU FATHER ♪ ♪ FOR YOUR POWER ♪ ♪ IT HAS RESURRECTED ME ♪ ♪ OH THE PAINFUL ♪ ♪ GOD KNOWS I'VE HAD SOME PAINFUL CIRCUMSTANCES.

♪ ♪ WOO, THAT MY POOR SOUL COULD NOT FLEE ♪ ♪ HALLELUJAH ♪ RASOOL: DON'T SOUND LIKE YOU'RE SLOWING DOWN ANY.

MS. OPAL: (CHUCKLING) THERE'S WORK TO DO AND PLENTY OF IT.

♪ UP, LOOK UP, BLOOD ON THE CLOCK ♪ ♪ NO LIGHT, DEATH TO THE CROPS ♪ ♪ DON'T LISTEN, LIES THROUGH THE TEETH ♪ ♪ LET HISTORY TELL THE TRUTH, JUNETEENTH ♪ (SONG CONTINUES)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A journey to Texas reveals the history & resilient hope of the Juneteenth holiday.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Season 2 Episode 1 | 14m 26s |

In this episode we explain the origin of Juneteenth and look at the parallels of Black liberation work around Reconstruction and Black liberation work, today. We will focus on 3 areas of "Fine Print": Voter Suppression, Mass Incarceration, and Policing with a special highlight on the work of leaders pushing for change in these areas.

Aired: 06/17/21

Rating: NR

From:

Problems Playing Video? Report a Problem |

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Say It Loud | Juneteenth: Freedom and the Fine Print | Season 2 | Episode 1

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Season 2 Episode 1 | 14m 26s | In this episode we explain the origin of Juneteenth and look at the parallels of Black liberation work around Reconstruction and Black liberation work, today. We will focus on 3 areas of "Fine Print": Voter Suppression, Mass Incarceration, and Policing with a special highlight on the work of leaders pushing for change in these areas.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Civil War

Explore the faces, places and events of the U.S. Civil War through photographs, prints and drawings in one online location.

The Prints & Photographs Division holds thousands of images relating to the Civil War, found in many different collections. This category allows research across those collections in one easy search.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) contains catalog records and digital images representing a rich cross-section of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division and, in some cases, other units of the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress offers broad public access to these materials as a contribution to education and scholarship.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Martha Yates Jones (left) and Pinkie Yates (right), daughters of Rev. Jack Yates, in a decorated carriage parked in front of the Antioch Baptist Church located in Houston's Fourth Ward, 1908 - Source

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Early Photographs of Juneteenth Celebrations

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Historical photographs of early Juneteenth celebrations throughout its home state of Texas and across the country.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Some content (or its descriptions) found on this site may be harmful and difficult to view. These materials may be graphic or reflect biases. In some cases, they may conflict with strongly held cultural values, beliefs or restrictions. We provide access to these materials to preserve the historical record, but we do not endorse the attitudes, prejudices, or behaviors found within them. Read more

The Digital Library of Georgia is part of the GALILEO Initiative and located at The University of Georgia Libraries
© 2023 Digital Library of Georgia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Civil Rights Digital Library is a GALILEO initiative based at the University of Georgia Libraries that collaborates with Georgia's Libraries, archives, museums, and other institutions of education and culture to provide access to key information resources on Georgia history, culture, and life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
National Museum of African American History and Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Welcome to NMAAHC Open Access, where you can explore and reuse thousands of digital items from the NMAAHC's collections. We have released these images and data into the public domain as Creative Commons Zero (CC0), meaning you can use, transform, and share our open access assets without asking permission from the Smithsonian.
What will you create? Open Access

About Smithsonian Open Access

What is open access?

Open access is a unique opportunity to bring Smithsonian collections to people in new ways, to engage with the public, and provide important context for challenging 21st century issues. With Smithsonian Open Access, we're increasing the public's ability to use millions of digital assets - 2D and 3D images and data. Open Access items carry what's called a CC0 designation. This means the Smithsonian dedicates the digital asset into the public domain, meaning it is free of copyright restrictions and you can use it for any purpose, free of charge, without further permission from the Smithsonian. As new images are digitized, if they are determined to be copyright-free, the Smithsonian will dedicate them as CC0 ongoing.

Since the Smithsonian's founding in 1846, its mission has been clear: "the increase and diffusion of knowledge." We want to empower people everywhere to participate in that mission with us in new and innovative ways for the 21st century.

Smithsonian Open Access invites you to discover a world where you can learn, research, explore, and create in ways you couldn't before. By making our trusted collections easier to access and use, we hope to inspire people to build new knowledge to understand our world - past and present.

Explore and Create

Find images from our collection to explore and create your masterpiece.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Smithsonian Open Access invites you to discover a world where you can learn, research, explore, and create in ways you couldn't before.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation have created the Schomburg-Mellon Humanities Summer Institute to encourage minority students and others with an interest in African-American and African Diasporan Studies to pursue graduate degrees in the humanities.

During six intensive weeks, the Institute, with the help of renowned scholars, develops and nurtures the students' interest in the appropriate disciplines, and provides them with the requisite intellectual challenges and orientations needed to pursue humanities careers and to reach their full potential.

Over the years, close to 80 percent of our students have gone on to graduate school; from Yale to UC Berkeley, and from Oxford to Carnegie Mellon and New York University.

The Institute is generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Institute Staff

Director
Dr. Sylviane A. Diouf

Mentors
Nicole Burrowes, City University of New York
Sean Greene, University of Pennsylvania

Assistant
Maribel Pimentel

Africana Age

Between 2005 and 2010, sixty Schomburg-Mellon Fellows conducted research in the Schomburg divisions, looking for photographs, prints, manuscripts, and periodicals to illustrate Africana Age. In devoting their energies to the preparation of this website, they were exposed to the ways new knowledge is created and to the intellectual excitement that one derives from the life of the mind. The Fellows became actively involved in the process of research and discovery and the challenge of interpreting documents and other sources.

Schomburg-Mellon Fellows

Africana Age Website Staff and Contributors
Project Director Curator and Project Manager Audio Video Montage Research Assistant Head Photographer Cartographer Copyeditor Intern Audio Segments Video Segments Web Design and Development
Howard Dodson

Sylviane A. Diouf

Davarian Baldwin - Trinity College - History/African and African Diaspora Studies
Maryemma Graham - University of Kansas - English
Robert Hill - University of California at Los Angeles - History
Ehiedu Iweriebor - Hunter College - History
Sir Keith Hunte, Emeritus - University of the West Indies, Barbados - History
Sylvie Kandé - SUNY Old Westbury - African Studies
Minkah Makalani - Rutgers University - History
Sarah-Jane Mathieu - University of Minnesota - History
Harvey Neptune - Temple University - History
Bertrade Ngo-Ngijol Bamoun- Lehman College - African Cultural Studies/Women's Studies/French
William Strickland - University of Massachusetts - Political Science
Benjamin Talton - Temple University - African History
Joyce Toney - Hunter College - Women's Studies/Africana Studies
Chad L. Williams - Hamilton College - History
Komozi Woodard - Sarah Lawrence College - American History

Diana Lachatanere
Genette McLaurin
Mary Yearwood

Christopher P. Moore

Ashley Bowden

Angeline Beljour
Natiba Guy-Clement
Michael Mery

Michael Perry
Allison Quammie
Antony Toussaint

Peter M. Riesett

Mike Siegel

Elizabeth Kugler

Adrian Deese

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
The History Makers
III Eye Digital LLC
www.iiieyedigital.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation have created the Schomburg-Mellon Humanities Summer Institute to encourage minority students and others with an interest in African-American and African Diasporan Studies to pursue graduate degrees in the humanities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Welcome to African Journals Online (AJOL)!

Researchers and policy-makers need access to contextually-relevant quality research publications from Africa in order to develop solutions to address the continent's challenges in health, education, climate change & under-development.

AJOL, the world's largest and preeminent platform of African-published scholarly journals, is a Non-Profit Organisation that (since 1998) works to increase global & continental online access, awareness, quality & use of African-published, peer-reviewed research

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Researchers and policy-makers need access to contextually-relevant quality research publications from Africa in order to develop solutions to address the continent’s challenges in health, education, climate change & under-development.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sign in to EBSCO Research Services to gain access to your library or organization’s subscription of EBSCOhost Databases, Discovery Service and Explora.