Celebrating the emancipation of blacks on Juneteenth is a compromise

Juneteenth is still a mystery to me, although of course it is now a widely recognized national holiday. I first heard about it as a college student in the mid-1970s. As a child growing up in Southern Virginia, I heard about April 9th. Never out loud, but my grandmother and other black people were very aware that it was an important day. Here’s why.

On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses Grant, effectively ending the Civil War. People around me thought this was important. They knew it, but they never talked about it out loud. In Virginia and throughout the South, Robert E. Lee was a beloved son and hero. In school, we learned about him as a great general, never about what he fought for, and very little about his surrender. Grant was the “other” general.

On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order that took effect on January 1, 1863, that freed the slaves. We knew this piece of history, but again, there was no serious celebration. I think the South, which had Jim Crow laws, was content to pretend this never happened.

The news of Lee’s surrender and the actual end of the Civil War did not officially reach Galveston, Texas, until June 19, 1865. Hence the celebration of Juneteenth.

Why do we celebrate the delayed communication with the remote South rather than the actual emancipation on September 22, 1862, or the actual end of the Civil War on April 9, 1865? This was probably another of many concessions to the former Confederacy. In many circles, it is still impolite to speak of the South losing the war or of the Confederacy’s cause being defeated. So instead of celebrating the Union victory and the actual emancipation of African slaves, Juneteenth becomes a convenient compromise. It avoids an awkward “in your face” to the defeated South.

The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which officially abolished slavery, was passed on December 6, 1865. This chronology often ignores the thousands of enslaved Africans who freed themselves as the Union Army advanced by simply leaving the plantations during the war. In fact, Lincoln’s proclamation was more of a recognition of African self-emancipation than an order to be carried out. It was seen as a military strategy to weaken the South by depriving it of the economic support, slave labor, needed to finance the Confederate Army. It was a recognition of the fact that African self-emancipation was already weakening the Confederacy. This was so real that the Confederacy itself considered freeing the so-called slaves in a last-ditch effort to save its economic base. Lincoln beat them to it. It is debatable whether the South would actually have followed through on this.

So when I think about the emancipation of African Americans, I am less inclined to praise the traditional version (they freed us) including the Juneteenth saga, and I realize that in many ways African Americans freed themselves against the will of the South and much of the North. I am not so superficial as to pretend that this would have happened without the crushing defeat of the Confederacy at the hands of the Union. Lincoln had made it clear that the war was to save the Union, not to free enslaved people.

The Civil War was one of many wars the United States fought and won. It was a war of internal origin, and as such, the entire country is scarred and painfully wounded. Yet the America of 2024 owes more to January 1, 1862, April 9, 1865, and December 6, 1865. Juneteenth is a nonthreatening compromise to recognize the freedom of former slaves (in Texas) without celebrating the actual end of a terrible war. Of course, I’m not against the holiday; I appreciate barbecue. But somehow, the April 9th ​​that my grandmother honored touches me more deeply.

John L. Hudgins ([email protected]) is an associate professor of sociology at Coppin State University and co-director of the Human Services Administration.