The Daily - The History and Meaning of Juneteenth

Episode Date: June 19, 2020

After 155 years, Juneteenth, a celebration of the emancipation of enslaved Americans, is being acknowledged as a holiday by corporations and state governments across the country. Today, we consider why, throughout its history, Juneteenth has gained prominence at moments of pain in the struggle for black liberation in America. We also ask: What does freedom mean now?Guest: Dr. Daina Ramey Berry, a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily Background reading: In a project examining the history and import of Juneteenth, we ask: What is freedom in America?Opal Lee, 93, an activist and lifelong Texan, has campaigned to make June 19 a national holiday for years. This is her vision for honoring the emancipation of enslaved Americans.

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today, it began with a government promise 155 years ago that, in some ways, has yet to be fulfilled. Professor Dinah Ramey Berry on the history of Juneteenth and what it means in this moment. It's Friday, June 19th. Dr. Berry, take us back to June 19th, 1865, and what happened that day. For most enslaved people in Texas, it was a typical day. They got up,

they went to the fields, or picking cotton, or producing sugar, and working just as they always had done. This was two months after the Civil War ended and two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation that President Lincoln issued on January 1st of 1863. Although they were fighting for their freedom, although they were still running away and committing acts of day-to-day resistance on plantations, enslaved people were not actually living in freedom. But on that day, June 19th of 1865, General Gordon Granger of the Union Army galloped into Galveston with 2,000 other individuals and came and gave a proclamation. The people of Texas, Granger said, are informed that in accordance with a proclamation from the

executive of the United States, 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 laborer. Formerly enslaved people, when they heard the news that slavery was over in Texas, celebrated. It was a day of great jubilee. They danced, they sung, they fled their plantations.

It was them claiming their freedom. It was them going out and embracing it. It was them packing their bags and leaving. It was them hugging their loved ones and saying, we're free, we're finally free. In the 1930s, the Workers' Progress Administration interviewed formerly enslaved people and asked them to tell their stories of slavery. Many recalled June 19th, particularly those that had been enslaved in Texas. We learn decades later of their experience and their response to when they learned about freedom. Sarah Ford said, when freedom come, I didn't know what that was.

Her uncle came to the yard and yelled, Everybody free! Everybody free! And pretty soon, soldiers comes and the captain reads the proclamation. Others, like Molly Farrell, a Texas bondwoman, said, Everybody talk about freedom and hope to get free before they die. Me and my mother left right off. Most everybody else goes with us. We walk down the road singing and shouting to a beat of the band. My father comes the next day and joins us. Sarah Ashley recalled, I was 19 years old when the burst of freedom come in June and I get turned loose.

Her former enslaver said that they were welcome to stay, except her father felt like they wanted to leave. Sarah recalls, Papa left, but he came back with a wagon and mules. When he borrows and he loads up Mama and my sister and me, and us goes to East Columbia on the Brazos River, and we settled down. They hired out my time, gave us a patch of land, and for the first time, I ever see money. Papa builds us a cabin and a corn crib and us so happy because the bright light done come and there was no more whippings. Within a year, when formerly enslaved people are celebrating Juneteenth, they're also facing grave restrictions upon their lives because of the 1866 Black Codes, which restricted African Americans from doing everyday activities,

restricted them from where they could go. They actually predated Jim Crow legislation. This was also the same year that the Ku Klux Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee. But African Americans that were formerly enslaved in Texas celebrated on. They celebrated Juneteenth in their backyards, in their churches, in their communities. They had barbecues and picnics and celebrated and remembered. They remembered the institution of slavery. Elders came and talked to the young children and told them about their experiences with slavery and wanted them to recognize the importance and the significance of emancipation.

Because of the Great Migration, African Americans that lived in Texas moved to other parts of the United States and they brought the celebration of Juneteenth, Emancipation Day, with them. But then in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, because of Jim Crow laws, African Americans celebrated Juneteenth in private settings, in their homes and in their churches. They were restricted in terms of parks and public spaces. They could not go to movie theaters except for on certain days, and they had to enter through certain doors. They were restricted from amusement parks, water fountains, lunch counters. All forms of segregation forced African Americans into their own communities, and in these spaces, during the heart of Jim Crow segregation,

African Americans celebrated Juneteenth privately. The resurgence of the public version of Juneteenth returns in the 1960s with the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement. The Black Power Movement. Black is beautiful! The Black Power Movement disseminated ideas about black is beautiful. Black people embraced the way they looked. The reason for it, you might say, is like a new awareness among black people that their own natural appearance, physical appearance is

beautiful. Their hair, their clothing. Dig it? Isn't it beautiful? All right. Freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

At this time, African Americans were celebrating victories from the Civil Rights Movement. Now, in this summer of 1964, the Civil Rights Bill is the law of the land. In the words of the president, it restricts no one's freedom so long as he respects the rights of others. And they then started becoming more and more public about their celebrations with Juneteenth festivals. Residents of Resurrection City and my fellow citizens. One particular celebration occurred on June 19th of 1968. I stand here today with many mixed emotions. The D.C. Urban League invited Coretta Scott King to speak on that day. For it was five years ago that my late husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., stood in this very spot and told the nation about his dream. A mourning wife, a grieving mother, is talking to a crowd of 75,000 people about

African-American freedom and the freedom of all people. Perhaps racism can be traced to that dark period in our history when slavery became institutionalized for 244 years. The roots of racism, she reminded us, deprived African Americans and other poor people of color dignity, self-respect, jobs, and they often experience violence by the hands of white Americans. The road to justice, peace, and brotherhood is difficult. We must renew our strength, increase our faith, and gird our courage. People left this particular celebration and brought it back to their homes in their states

throughout the country. states throughout the country. And in this moment, African Americans are embracing and celebrating Juneteenth. They're celebrating it because they're taking pride in their culture, they're remembering a difficult part of their history, the history of slavery, and they're recognizing freedom and equality. Juneteenth becomes a state holiday in Texas officially in 1980. And from this moment on, celebrations from Juneteenth become much more public. Large-scale parades, barbecues, picnics, African Americans are celebrating and sharing the stories of slavery, sharing the history of slavery, and sharing oral histories from those that remember celebrations from years ago. Another widely publicized incident captured on videotape has become a focus for ethnic tensions between the Black and Korean communities in Los Angeles.

Then there came a moment in the early 1990s where Juneteenth celebrations took on new meanings. March 16th, 1991, Latasha Harlins, a black teenager, is shot and killed by a Korean store owner, Soon-Ja Do. Do claimed Harlins was stealing a bottle of orange juice when she confronted the teenager. The merchant, Suja Du, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. Her sentence, five years probation, no jail time. The black community is outraged. And it sends a bad message that a human life is not valued. What, six months probation?

I mean, the people were pissed then. The title of this videotape is very appropriate. It's called The Foothill Incident. By now, like every man, woman, and child in probably the United States, you have witnessed this videotape in your own living rooms over and over again. A bystander videotaped the policeman shocking 25-year-old Rodney King with a stun gun, then clubbing and kicking him as he lay on the ground. Against a growing national furor over last weekend's police beating of an unarmed black

motorist, Los Angeles Police Chief Darrell Gates said today that all 14 officers involved will be disciplined and that three will face criminal charges. These two incidents sparked unrest in the community, but after the King beating, African Americans were once again on alert. 35 days of testimony, 54 witnesses. The video played scores of times in real time, slow motion, frame by frame. Finally, the jurors leave to deliberate.

. Well, my reaction is shock first and then disappointment. Obviously, we feel the evidence warranted a conviction on the defendants, and the jury disagreed with us, and we must abide by their decision. All the police officers involved in the beating of Rodney King were acquitted, and that led to the Los Angeles riots. The violence erupted after the acquittal of four white policemen in the beating trial of black motorist Rodney King. We're being told that several patrol cars have been surrounded near Parker Center downtown.

All of the officers in the Central Division are being instructed to put on their helmets with shields in the area near the police headquarters. I feel that there is an undercurrent of racism and that the system has rotten to the core. No justice, no peace! We're looking at you. We can tell you now at least five major fires have broken out in South Central. There were so many blazes the fire department couldn't respond to all the calls and just let some buildings burn to the ground. Yes, they saw law-abiding citizens expressing their anger at the verdict, and they chose as an opportunity to steal, to loot, to vandalize, and indeed to kill.

That we cannot and will not tolerate. As in 1968, after the Rodney King beating, there was a resurgence in the celebration of Juneteenth because African-Americans were thinking about freedoms and thinking about civil rights and thinking about Rodney King. They wanted to celebrate and focus on African-American liberty, African-American justice, and they felt like Rodney King did not receive justice. So Juneteenth celebrations were celebrations to recognize freedom and recognize enslavement at the same time. So the story of Juneteenth, from what you're saying, is cyclical. It's the story of cycles of joy and pain living side by side. and pain living side by side. And the last time that Juneteenth experienced a major resurgence began with this scene of police brutality

and systemic racism broadcast to the entire country. Absolutely. We saw this the very first year Juneteenth was celebrated in the 1860s against the backdrop of both joy and pain, of slavery and freedom. We saw this in the 1960s. We saw this again in the 1990s. And we're seeing this again today. We'll be right back. So, Dr. Barry, here we are. It's about 30 years after Rodney King. And we are in the middle of another national outcry

over police violence and systemic racism. And it is now June 19th, 2020, Juneteenth. And I know that this may be a bit of an unfair question to ask a historian without the benefit of time and of distance, But what does this day mean right now in this moment? For me as a historian, it means celebrating African American freedom and African American restraints that are put upon us as a people. It is a moment where we celebrate gains and losses. We're seeing African Americans today being beaten the same way we did in the 1990s, the same way we did in the 60s and in the 1860s. We're seeing African American life being devaluated by not only police officers, but also citizens who feel like they have the right to challenge and

confront African Americans for doing everyday mundane tasks. Black people are being killed in their living rooms. They're being killed in their backyards. They're being killed on the streets. And they're being killed sleeping in their cars. They're being killed for going and purchasing some Skittles or playing with a toy gun in a park. I have these conversations, and these conversations mean so much to me as a mother who has an African-American teenage young man in my household. And so what has that conversation been like with your son? Very difficult conversations with him. The fear of the police and what to do if he's confronted. We had that conversation with him when he was 12.

And it's been hard because we have very close friends that are police officers. So it's a very mixed conversation, you know, to have with him and to talk to him about how to interact, how to carry himself, how to speak, when to speak, what to do with his hands. All of these sort of prescriptive things that we talk to him about so that he knows what to do and that he can make smart decisions when being confronted by police officers. And he worries that his life expectancy is short. And he said that to me when he was eight. And he's talked about it recently. And he said, you know, am I going to live to 30? And what did you say back?

What did I say back? I said, that's a reality that is hard. And as a mother, it's hard to have this conversation. But yes, you can live to more than 30. But that the reality is no matter what he does, some people will still look at him as a threat to society. He remembers when he was cute. He was still cute at seven.

But once he became eight or nine, people started grabbing their purses on elevators when we got on elevators. Just two weeks ago in our own neighborhood when we were walking our dog, he was behind me and some of our neighbors followed him because he had a mask on. And he said, well, mom, how do I protect myself from disease when people are looking at me as a criminal? And I said, carefully, gingerly, and do the best you can at being who you are, being proud of who you are, but also being careful that not everybody see you as the beautiful child that I gave birth to and that my husband and I have raised. So in this cycle of joy and pain that has always been Juneteenth, which way does it lean for you and for your family this year? Joy or pain? Pain. Absolutely pain. We're hurt by the ways in which African Americans are being hurt in this country. We're hurt that all of the battles of freedom and for equality, we're hurt that no matter what we do, we're still being treated with the level of disrespect

that harkens back to earlier periods in American history. I teach an African American history class called Intro to African American History, and it covers African arrival in what became the United States until today. It's a big sweeping time period, but students often are exhausted by the time we reach the 20th century because of the highs and lows that African Americans have experienced in this country. I remember one student asking me, where is the Black joy? When do we get to see Black joy? And I said, we're coming up to the Harlem Renaissance. There's lots of joy in that decade. But then it follows by the Great Depression and the Jim Crow legislation and lynching. And so once we have a high, then it ebbs down into a low valley of despair and pain. And students are

saying again, Dr. Berry, we're getting exhausted. We're going back into this period of despair. And then there's a resurgence of the civil rights movement and the black power now. Will we say that there was a change or is this another high or another low that we've experienced? And we go back to business as usual. I like to think, because I'm an optimist, that there will be change and that we will come out of this low moment as a better people and a better society.

When you think about Juneteenth as the day that finally brought freedom to enslaved people in Texas, how do you think about freedom in this moment? For me, when I think about Juneteenth as Emancipation Day, and I think about this moment, I feel like we still need to be emancipated. There's still more freedoms that need to be protected. There's still more laws that need to be protected. There's still more laws that need to be revised. There's still more inclusion that needs to happen. There's still more achievement to be had. There's still more space for change and growth. And so for me on today, on Juneteenth, I'm reflecting on how can I, in my little corner of the world, make change happen and make generations that come after me experience more just and whole society. the day reflecting on that and having conversations with my husband and my son and trying to encourage him to have hope and faith in the future.

Dr. Berry, thank you very much. We appreciate it. Thank you for having me on this historic day. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. The Times reports that global daily infection rates from the coronavirus reached record highs over the past week, driven by outbreaks in Latin America, Africa, South Asia, and the United States. In Brazil, officials reported more than 32,000 new cases on Wednesday, the most in the world. The U.S. reported the second most, more than 25,000. Within the U.S., California and Florida reported their highest daily infections yet on Thursday, prompting California to require the state's 40 million residents to cover their faces in almost all settings outside the home.

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to memorialize people who embody violent bigotry and grotesque racism of the Confederacy. For an update on the Supreme Court's ruling on DACA, listen to the newest episode of The Latest here on The Daily Feed, or wherever you listen. Andy Mills, Lisa Tobin, Rachel Quester, Lindsay Garrison, Annie Brown, Claire Tennisgetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon-Johnson, Brad Fisher, Larissa Anderson, Wendy Doerr, Chris Wood, Jessica Chung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Lee Young, Jonathan Wolfe, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Jonathan Wolfe Lisa Chow

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