Happy Juneteenth!

Today is the anniversary of what can be at least argued as the end of slavery in the USA: June 19th, 1865. On this day Union general Gordon Granger* formally announced that the Emancipation Proclamation had come to Texas.  Texan African-Americans have been celebrating Juneteenth every year; it’s been a state holiday since 1980, and a recognized one in 90% of the USA at this point.

As I’ve said before: it’s never a bad idea to throw a party celebrating the end of slavery.

Moe Lane

*I admit it: I had to look up the guy’s name.

Happy Juneteenth!

This is one of those holidays that I learned about first on the Internet: it commemorates the day that Texas was officially informed that slavery was done there, thanks. It recently got recognized as a holiday in Maryland; according to Wikipedia, most of the country recognizes it by now. Which makes sense. As I said last year, slavery is nasty. Nice to commemorate a blow struck against it.

Moe Lane

PS: As a look at the archives shows: I’ve never considered this a political topic.

Happy Juneteenth!

Juneteenth, for my fellow Northeasterners, is the anniversary of the announcement in Galveston in 1865 that the war was over – and thus the slaves were now all free.  It effectively marks the end of slavery in the USA*.  The holiday is pretty big in the African-American community; of the states that celebrate it, Texas probably does so most thoroughly because, well, Texas.  People worked out that the holiday could easily accommodate a barbeque, which I’ve discovered is a pretty dang significant event/occupation/preoccupation in the South.  Although Southerners don’t really agree with me that Maryland counts as ‘the South.’

Anyway.  Happy Juneteenth.

Moe Lane

*Sorta.  The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution had been passed but not yet ratified at that point.  But said ratification was going to be as inevitable as the tide anyway.