Juneteenth: Celebrating Freedom and Resilience in the USA ✊🏾
Juneteenth is a special holiday celebrated every June 19th in the United States. But why is this date so important?
✊🏽 Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. On June 19th, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce the end of the Civil War and the freedom of enslaved people in the state. This news came two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation, which had declared enslaved people in Confederate states to be free.
✊🏿 Today, Juneteenth is a day of celebration for African Americans. People gather for parades, barbecues, and festivals filled with music, food, and cultural activities. It’s a time to reflect on the struggles for freedom and the achievements of the Black community.
✊🏼 So, how do people celebrate Juneteenth today? There are parades, festivals, and community gatherings filled with music, food, and dancing. People wear red, white, and blue to symbolize the freedom they finally received.
✊🏾 Some #FunFacts! about Juneteenth:
👉🏾 This holiday is also known as “Sweet Freedom Day” because enslaved people often celebrated with delicious food after their liberation. It is also known as Jubilee Day, Black Independence Day, and Emancipation Day.
👉🏾 The typical food for this holiday is RED food, as a symbolic reminder of the blood spilled during the struggle for freedom — Red Velvet cake and watermelon are a must.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72366527/shutterstock_2302376863.0.jpg)
✊🏿 But Juneteenth is more than just a party. It’s a reminder of the ongoing fight for racial equality. It’s a day to celebrate progress but also acknowledge the work that remains to be done.
What I Recommend to Watch this Month:
12 Years a Slave (2013): is a historical drama film that tells the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man from New York who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. The film is a brutal and unflinching look at the horrors of slavery, but it is also a powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit.
Selma (2014): is a historical drama film that chronicles the Selma to Montgomery marches, which were a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement. The film follows Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists as they fight for voting rights for African Americans.
13th (2016): This powerful documentary by Ava DuVernay explores the legacy of the 13th Amendment and its connection to mass incarceration, particularlytargeting African Americans. It argues that the loophole allowing slavery “as a punishment for crime” has fueled a system that disproportionately affects Black communities.
When They See Us (2019): This miniseries is the true story of the Central Park Five, a group of Black and Latino teenagers who were wrongly convicted of a brutal assault in New York City in 1989. The series exposes the racial biases within the criminal justice system and the devastating consequences for those caught in its web.