Why is Juneteenth a holiday? It's an important day in American history - as explained by the editor of Salvo magazine:
"On June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, Union Army general Gordon Granger proclaimed freedom for the enslaved people in Texas. Two and a half years had passed since Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and Texas had been the last remaining Confederate state to retain slavery. Thus June 19, 1865, marked the end of institutional slavery in the United States.
"The following year, the freed slaves in Galveston commemorated the day with celebrations in their churches and communities. Over time the freedom fest spread to more states, and the day became known as
Juneteenth. It has also been called Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, Liberation Day, and Black Independence Day. Last year, it became the nation’s newest national holiday.
"Juneteenth falls within what’s called the “Honor America Days period,” which runs from Flag Day on June 14 to Independence Day on July 4th. This is fitting. It is true that at America’s founding, the asserted right to freedom for all was not fully realized. But the legal foundation for it was laid in the very documents asserting that right.
"Recall that the Declaration of Independence specifically tied the inalienable right to liberty to the
Creator, who intended that we live free under him. There is no way one can square the assertion that all men are endowed by their Creator with an inalienable right to liberty, on the one hand, with legalized slavery, the very antithesis of liberty, on the other. There was no justification for Americans to tolerate slavery, and in his
second inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln gently suggested that the whole nation was responsible for it and that the Civil War was God’s way of punishing both North and South.
"Certainly, the right choice for America from the beginning would have been to abide by the foundational tenets, grounded in Creation, that it professed at its inception. That would have translated into full equality under the law for all from the beginning. But we would do well to not vaunt ourselves too proudly, as some are in the habit of doing, assuming we might have chosen better against the trends and pressures of another era.
"Be that as it may, Juneteenth bears witness to the historical reality that, while it wasn’t without copious blood, sweat, and tears and most importantly the grace of God, and while it took Americans way too long to fully realize it, the United States of America eventually achieved in law full equality for all.
"Race hustlers will no doubt spin Juneteenth as evidence that America is a racist nation. But they ignore the fact that Juneteenth would never have happened, let alone become a national holiday, in a nation given over to racism. What they deliberately ignore, then, we should deliberately point out: Juneteenth offers us a new day by which to recognize America as an exceptional nation among the nations of the earth.
"Its falling right in the center of the Honor Days is at least appropriate and perhaps providential, because proclaiming liberty and setting captives free is the kind of thing Christ set about doing. And it is something to honor and to celebrate.
