Juneteenth Means Protecting Our History and Safeguarding Our Joy

On June 19, 1865, a Union army under the leadership of General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, and announced that all enslaved African Americans were free—two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed, and two months after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered, ending the Civil War. Despite the enormous economic and social impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the United States, Juneteenth only became a federal holiday in 2021. The first Juneteenth celebration, however, took place in 1866 and Black communities have been celebrating it on a yearly basis ever since.

Now, the current political environment calls into question the future of the holiday and, even more importantly, the future of how it is taught in U.S. history. Misconstruing the telling of historical facts and honest discussions about race as indoctrination, critical race theory, or diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has become central to the Trump administration’s education platform. Regardless of the partisan politics of today, Juneteenth is a key moment in U.S. history. It remains an opportunity to honor the truth while celebrating the joy of ending the institution of slavery, marking African Americans’ ability to finally take part in ideals this country was founded on: freedom, liberty, and justice for all.

False distortions of history, especially to serve a political agenda, are not new. During the Civil War, propagandists across the South referred to the war as one “of Northern Aggression,” or “the War Between the States,” ignoring the role that slavery played in the Confederacy’s secession from the Union. While wholly untrue, that version of history, now known as “the Lost Cause of the Confederacy”—or simply “the Lost Cause”—took deep root in the South.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, United Confederate Veterans, and Sons of Confederate Veterans played a central role in the misinformation campaign that continues to breathe life into inaccurate retellings of the Civil War and American history. The Rutherford Committee, formed in 1919 and including membership from all three organizations, is credited with vetting hundreds of textbooks that were used to indoctrinate generations of students. Publications like 1920’s A Measuring Rod to Test Text Books, and Reference Books in Schools, Colleges and Libraries claim that the U.S. Constitution was not a national or perpetual document, that the South did not fight to hold slaves, and even that slaves were not ill-treated. Such texts recommended, and ultimately ensured, that teaching materials in the South would adhere to their false version of history.

The implications were far-reaching, with these falsehoods seeping into how history is taught even today, according to researcher, scholar, and educator Amanda LaTasha Armstrong, author of the New America report The Representation of Social Groups in U.S. Education Materials and Why it Matters. As Armstrong says, “In some spaces there was an understanding that [slavery] was a benefit to people (it was not), that people didn’t rebel (which they did), that people didn’t bring prior knowledge based in African practices (which they did).” Some 95 years after A Measuring Rod was published, textbooks in Houston were still referring to the Transatlantic Slave Trade as “immigration” and enslaved people as “workers.”

Reframing history to erase acts of violence against African Americans and other groups is seeing a resurgence today. In President Trump’s first term, his administration created the 1776 Commission to promote politicized narratives that historians have called inaccurate. In his second term, the administration is committed to weakening the public education system by dismantling the functionality of the Department of Education in an attempt to close it, and slashing funding for vital public education programs. It is also worth mentioning that the administration is currently receiving a lot of legal pushback against their actions, including over several executive orders that embody alarming government overreach by undermining civil rights enforcement and asserting federal oversight in schools and classrooms.

For Juneteenth, the challenge presented in this moment is how to safeguard this history so that it isn’t twisted beyond recognition and weaponized. Some conservative organizations, for example, claim that Juneteenth celebrations are attempting to replace the country’s recognition of the July 4th Independence Day. Pitting these holidays against each other in false opposition creates the exact kind of divisiveness and alienation associated with the Trump wing of the Republican Party. But despite the prevailing partisan politics, Juneteenth remains a critical part of America’s story, and it is worth remembering and celebrating. Communities and classrooms across the country are actively engaging in that remembrance and celebration and preserving that history by telling the Juneteenth story.

One way to honor and celebrate the truth about Juneteenth is to highlight books that tell the story, such as They Built Me for Freedom by Tonya Duncan Ellis. This children’s book personifies Emancipation Park, the site of the first Juneteenth celebration, allowing it to talk about its role in and experience of history. For Duncan Ellis, writing about Juneteenth was about focusing on joy. “Because even though this is a tough story, it’s also a story of redemption and overcoming,” she said. “As a people, we’ve had all kinds of struggles, but throughout these struggles, we’ve overcome them and triumphed.”

For Victoria Winslow, a 13-year veteran educator and Nationally Board Certified Teacher, Juneteenth is an opportunity to broach conversations about equality and also equip her students with the tools they need to stand up for what is right. “Sometimes we think children can’t understand these big ideas,” Winslow said. But despite her students being between the ages of three and five, “they do have a sense of understanding of fairness and that’s where the conversation starts,” she added.

Winslow said part of her personal philosophy comes from the principle of sankofa, which means to “go back and retrieve” or “return to your past,” representing learning from the past to know where you’re going. In this moment “where people are trying to repeat certain parts of our history that are very painful,” Winslow says, for her that means “my students know[ing] what those signs are and know that there’s something they can do about it. Even now at their young age, they’re never too small to stand up for what’s right and to speak the truth.”

In classrooms and beyond, the Black Joy movement is gaining popularity. Making its rounds on social media with the hashtags #blackgirljoy, #blackboyjoy, and others, the Black Joy Movement is centered on joy as resistance and reclamation. It is an opportunity to hold space for and learn from the past in order to resist systemic racism and oppression in the present and future. It’s that kind carving out space for joy that keeps the spirit of Juneteenth alive. And now, the work of protecting that which brings and sustains joy is more important than ever, especially as reports of political anxiety and burnout increase.

The political tensions in this country have been building for decades, and the last few election cycles have brought those tensions to a boiling point. As we stay in the fight to maintain American democracy, we have to continue to prioritize preparing the next generation to learn from the past and ask critical questions of the world around them. Celebrating Juneteenth means ensuring that our history isn’t so far behind us that we forget its implications for our future.