The shop is closed today. The following has absolutely nothing to do with skateboarding, but it might provide a little insight as to why we find it a worthy holiday to celebrate (we aren’t fully closed for very many holidays that aren’t already on a Monday). A version of this essay was originally published on blog called The Church of Black Coffee on June 20th, 2022.
Juneteenth
June 20th, 2022
On April 9th, 1865 Robert E. Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox, Virginia. This was not actually the surrendering of the Confederate Army itself, however. In those days, the conveyance of information was limited to the abilities of men and horses to carry the news. Over the next several months, as supplies and troops dwindled, other Confederate commanders surrendered in turn. Their quest, to separate themselves from the United States through treason and murder in order to preserve the practice of slavery, had ended in humiliating defeat.
It wasn’t until August 20th, 1866 that the Civil War officially ended through the proclamation of Andrew Johnson, who became president after Abraham Lincoln was shot in the back of the head. The fact that Johnson was vice president is an unfortunate reflection of the fact that while Lincoln was probably one of the best presidents the United States will ever have, he was still some guy pursuing power at all costs. Lincoln had selected Johnson, a pro-slavery democrat, as a means of winning a contentious election. Once Lincoln died, it was Johnson who pardoned every seditious treasonous war criminal that asked and paved the way for racist legislation to ensure that Black citizens of the United States would suffer for decades, coming up on centuries, to come.
Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation way back in 1863. Contrary to popular belief, this was not the order that ended slavery. It actually only freed slaves in any state currently rebelling against the United States. Lincoln was not taking a moral stance against slavery with the edict, it was tactical. It gave the people enslaved in those states a legal route to becoming members of the Union army, for one thing. It gave people who had been enslaved an ability to rise and rebel against their enslavers. It did not, however, end slavery in any meaningful way. That would occur only when the 13th amendment had passed.
So slavery wasn’t officially stated to be illegal in most situations until December 6th, 1865, with the passage of the 13th amendment. It had become effectively illegal much earlier, but with news traveling at about 4 miles per hour, it took a while to reach all the corners of this obviously oversized country. Texas, which the United States had taken from Mexico about 20 years earlier, was still super into thinking of fellow human beings as farm equipment. It wasn’t until June 19th, 1865, that General Granger arrived in Texas to let everyone know that slavery wasn’t happening anymore. The last enslaved people in the United States of America were freed.
So, Juneteenth is about as good a reason for a holiday that could be asked for. The United States was born in genocide and slavery and Juneteenth was the first day in this nation when it had taken an actual step away from the latter. Again, there is still slavery in the United States (https://thehill.com/blogs/3525313-us-prison-workers-produce-11b-worth-of-goods-and-services-for-little-to-no-pay-at-all/) but it was a step, a big one.
The thing is, things have improved in the United States since its inception, but we need to do two things. Acknowledging how incredibly unjust aspects of the culture has been and still is is the most important thing. We should also celebrate the victories there have been. By highlighting the ways by which this experiment has succeeded we can look towards paths to future successes. Ending slavery, for the most part, on paper, is a success. It did not fix the world. It did not erase the impact hundreds of years of slavery, and a hundred plus years of subsequent racist legislation, would have. It was an incredible step forward however, and by celebrating it we celebrate the hope of future successes as well.
Happy Juneteenth!
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