Q&A: Juneteenth and the Emancipation Proclamation

Juneteenth marks the date that Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas — June 19, 1865 — carrying the news of the end of the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation. What began as a regional holiday has since grown to become a national holiday.

The document that signaled the beginning of slavery’s end in the United States, the Emancipation Proclamation — an 1864 copy of which is held by the Penn Libraries’ Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts — had been signed by President Abraham Lincoln a full two and a half years before the convergence in Galveston.

Penn Today spoke with Marcia Chatelain, the Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies, and Kermit Roosevelt, the David Berger Professor for the Administration of Justice at Penn Carey Law, about the history of the Emancipation Proclamation and the impact of Juneteenth continuing throughout the American story.

What did Juneteenth mean for people at the end of the Civil War and the start of Reconstruction?

Marcia Chatelain: There’s this powerful narrative of Juneteenth as an overnight transformation going from slavery to freedom that is particularly poignant. But then you take a step back and see how long that process actually took place between 1863 and the end of the Civil War. Juneteenth today is key to understanding how emancipation worked. What happened in 1863 didn’t apply to the entire South; it applied to the border states, and there we have an issue where … part of Texas is not subject to emancipation. The Emancipation Proclamation for this part of Texas is a reflection of the convergence of the end of the Civil War and the granting of freedom. It also showcased the actual knowledge that the issue of slavery had been resolved in a meaningful way.

What was the broader meaning of Juneteenth during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s?

Chatelain: The celebration of Juneteenth was a really slow process. It started as a Texas holiday, a regional holiday, for the majority of its existence. It wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s that people took it as a general celebration of emancipation and the nuances of freedom. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were different ways that people would celebrate aspects of African-American history — you see the building of Negro History Week, which became Black History Month, you have the celebration of Lincoln’s birthday, you have the March on Washington celebrating 100 years from the Emancipation Proclamation. And with Juneteenth, it finally comes to a crescendo in 2021, when it becomes a federal holiday.

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Pictured above: A Juneteenth Emancipation Day celebration, June 19, 1900, Texas.