DANIEL McCLOUD

June 19, 1865 — now commonly known as Juneteenth — is when enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, were made aware that the Civil War was over and that they were free, a full two months following the surrender of the Confederate army. This date is a national holiday — a time for celebration and reflections for African Americans across the United States.

“Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude.”
— Frederick Douglass

As we reflect on what Juneteenth represents, let us consider the circumstances leading to this day. First, two years before June 19, 1865, not two months, slavery was technically abolished by the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. The notification to the people of Galveston, Texas, only put into effect the Emancipation Proclamation, which Abraham Lincoln signed into law on January 1, 1863. The proclamation declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.”

However, in reviewing the events leading to this date, you can see the road to freedom is one “seldom traveled by the multitude:”

• July 4, 1776: America’s first Independence Day.
• April 16, 1862: President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act that abolished slavery in the District of Columbia.
• September 22, 1862: Lincoln issued preliminary Emancipation Proclamation Order.
• January 1, 1863: Emancipation Proclamation took effect.
• January 31, 1865: The date the 13th Amendment passed Congress, officially abolishing the institution of slavery. The 13th Amendment was necessary because the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by Lincoln in January of 1863, did not free those in border states.
• April 9, 1865: Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Va.
• June 19, 1865: Juneteenth.
• December 6, 1865: The day the 13th Amendment was ratified.

Three states, though, rejected the 13th Amendment and did not ratify it, including Delaware (February 12, 1901); Kentucky (March 18, 1976); and Mississippi, which voted to ratify the 13th Amendment on March 16, 1995, but it was not officially ratified until February 7, 2013.

Note that despite the news that the war was over, this only ushered in a new form of oppression for Blacks in the form of Jim Crow laws and domestic terrorism in lynching. In truth, the Civil War was not fought to end slavery but rather to preserve the Union. This position was made evident by Lincoln himself months before he signed the Emancipation Proclamation in a letter to New York Times editor Horace Greeley, in which he wrote:

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.” If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.

Yours,
— A. LINCOLN

This letter is not exactly a ringing endorsement for the abolishment of slavery. So as Juneteenth approaches, let us not forget the events before and after June 19, 1865. As we reflect on the struggles for freedom, past, present, and future, we recognize that none are immortal and must all cherish every ounce of freedom in its many forms.

Let us take solace in the words of legendary singer Donny Hathaway, who once so beautifully sang, “Someday we’ll all be free.”