You may remember that President Trump had to move his big rally
in Tulsa, Oklahoma, because it was originally scheduled
on the same day as Juneteenth.
Now, that was particularly awkward,
because Tulsa is the site of an infamous 1921 massacre
of black people.
But in a new interview with The Wall Street Journal,
Trump says that he had no idea Juneteenth was even a thing,
and that he polled many people around him,
and none of them had heard of Juneteenth, either.
Now, I don't know why that's surprising.
Of course nobody around Trump had heard of Juneteenth.
Look at the people he has around him.
Look at them.
Mike Pence doesn't even know what a cayenne pepper is.
You think he's gonna know about black history?
But to be fair, Trump is hardly alone.
There are many Americans who don't know what Juneteenth is.
And if you're one of those people,
Dulcé Sloan is here to explain it
in her new segment, Dul-Sayin'.
♪ ♪
Tomorrow is Juneteenth,
the day we celebrate slavery officially ending in America.
Or, if you're a Gone With the Wind fan...
(Southern accent): a day of mournin'.
Now, you might be thinking, "The end of slavery--
so this is about the Emancipation Proclamation."
Nope.
The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 didn't end slavery.
Slavery didn't even end when the Civil War was over in 1865.
In reality, it took two months after the Civil War ended
for the Union Army to get into all the slave states
and free the slaves.
When it came to giving out freedom,
white people ran on CP Time.
But on June 19, 1865,
a Union general named Gordon Granger
occupied Texas, the last slave state,
and declared all the slaves free.
He's an American hero!
And he looks like the barista at my coffee shop.
I'm gonna have to thank him next time I order a macchiato.
And freeing the slaves in Texas was especially important,
because, although Texas was the last state to be emancipated,
it had a ton of slaves.
It was blacker than a family reunion in Wakanda.
That's because during the war a lot of slave owners
shipped their slaves to Texas for safekeeping,
knowing the Union troops couldn't reach that far.
They were basically treating Texas like the couch cushions
you hide your weed in when the cops come.
Officer, I didn't know.
I got this couch on Craigslist.
It came with the weed.
Of course, even though we celebrate Juneteenth
as the end of slavery, it took many more months,
and a military occupation, to actually enforce it.
Because it's one thing to tell people they can't have slaves,
it's another thing to go door-to-door like,
"Hey, you paying these guys?
'Cause if not, this better be a big-ass sleepover."
And all this still didn't free slaves in Union territory.
That didn't happen until the 13th Amendment.
Yeah, that's right.
There were Union states with slaves.
Imagine-- living in New Jersey and being a slave?
That's one human rights violation on top of another.
Either way, black people in Texas recognize June 19
as the day they were liberated.
They organized the first celebration of Juneteenth,
then over time it spread as black people migrated.
And today, it's celebrated by black folks around the country.
SHADORA CODY: It is a representation of our freedom,
where we can all come together on one street,
close down the city to represent the culture.
You see? That's why Juneteenth is my favorite Independence Day.
It goes Juneteenth,
Independence Day with Will Smith,
then the Fourth of July.
I'm not a fan of fireworks.
Sounds like someone's doing a drive-by on the sky.
So, if you ask me,
we should make Juneteenth a national holiday,
because everybody--
everybody--
should celebrate the end of slavery,
the beginning of freedom for black people
and the long march toward America's founding ideals.
Also, we get the day off.
I don't want to be stuck in the office in June.
Kevin keeps heating up fish in the microwave
because he's a pescatarian,
and then he keeps cooking all these eggs.