What is Juneteenth?
June 19 marks the historical milestone of Juneteenth, the oldest known celebration that marks the end of enslavement in U.S. history. Juneteenth is formed from combining the words “June” and “nineteenth,” and pays homage to the date of June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned from Major General Gordon Granger, along with accompanying Union soldiers, that they had a legally recognized free status across the state of Texas and that the Civil War had officially ended. Then, annual Juneteenth celebrations began the following year in 1866. Juneteenth has also been called Black Independence Day, Emancipation Day, Juneteenth National Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Juneteenth Independence Day.
Why is Juneteenth important in U.S. History?
Juneteenth is significant because it is one of the few holidays throughout the country that memorializes the end of enslavement, not only for the Black individuals in Galveston, Texas, but as the end of enslavement for the more than four million formerly enslaved people in the United States in 1865, after nearly 250 years of enslavement.
While many had worked to recognize Juneteenth as a national holiday for decades, the Black Lives Matter movement—especially the national organizing in the fight for justice for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, along with all Black lives—renewed and strengthened the efforts to recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday. In fact, on Thursday, June 17, 2021, Congress passed and presented the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act to President Joe Biden, who signed the bill into law. Juneteenth became the12th federal holiday and the first national holiday to be passed in 38 years, since Martin Luther King Jr. Day became a federal holiday in 1983.
Our yearly meeting wide witness of Addressing Racism
In our yearly meeting, one of the two witnesses we have is of Addressing Racism. In 2015, as a collective body, Friends approved a Minute of Action where we affirmed that as a yearly meeting we would commit to increase our consciousness as Friends about the intersection of privilege and race in our culture and spiritual community; commit to move forward with our entire community; and commit to integrate this work into what we do in an ongoing way at the yearly meeting level.
What makes this witness unique is that the work of addressing racism is not tasked to any particular Friends, committee, council, Quarter, or local meeting. In fact, this witness is to be carried by all Friends at all levels within the yearly meeting.
Friends discussed together on PYM Connect ways in which they would be participating in local Juneteenth activities and programs. For one Friend, Juneteenth is their wedding anniversary, and they will be celebrating their marriage along with “keep[ing] in mind the historical significance of the Juneteenth Holiday,” adding that they will have two things to celebrate on the auspicious day of Juneteenth. For another Friend, at her meeting, there will be a forum about Juneteenth and a showing of the movie titled I Am Not Your Negro with James Baldwin. This Friend’s meeting has also put up a banner on their news wall on the street in front of their meetinghouse. Join PYM Connect to share how you’ll be commemorating Juneteenth!
What are opportunities that Juneteenth presents to Friends?
While many Friends know the names of white Quakers who were abolitionists like Lucretia Mott, Benjamin Lay, and John Woolman, when learning about and sharing our Quaker history, it is important to center the historical impact of Black Friends, too. Juneteenth presents us an opening to center and recognize the tireless work, activism, and brilliance of Black Friends, along with Black Americans more broadly, who worked with all their might toward a society and future of freedom. Some of these Black Friends whose legacies we continue to honor today include Captain Paul Cuffee, Sarah Mapps Douglass, and Cyrus Bustill.
Opening ourselves to spiritual transformation for racial justice …
Many Friends have noted Quaker foreparents as abolitionists, individuals who valiantly worked to end institutional enslavement, bolstered the abolitionist movement, and tried to ensure the freedom and safety of Black Americans. And, another aspect of Quaker history, is that many white Friends, not just in Southern States, but in Northern States, too, continued to practice enslavement and resisted the call among Friends to end their practice of enslavement.
One such example is Quaker James Logan, who resided in Stenton House in what is now the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. James Logan, the personal secretary to William Penn, practiced enslavement and continuously resisted his yearly meeting’s call for him to end his participation in enslavement, even at the risk of being read out of his meeting. The staff at Stenton House have taken on the task of exploring the legacy of Quakers enslaving people in Northern states through their project titled, “Wrestling with Justice: Quakers and Northern Slavery at Stenton.”
Juneteenth is a special day that marks a day of freedom and liberation. As Friends within the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, this day is an opening to reflect, engage, and commemorate this momentous date together.
