WCNC, Charlotte. This is Flashpoint,
where power and politics collide and the
tough questions get asked and answered.
Thanks for joining us here on Flashpoint.
I'm Ben Thompson, by the way,
Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.
Not only is it Father's Day,
but it's also Juneteenth,
a holiday that commemorates the
end of slavery here in America.
But it's one that really honestly
has only gained national
recognition in the last few years.
After four bloody years, the Union
defeated the Confederacy to win the Civil
War and abolished slavery in April 1865.
There were nearly 4,000,000 slaves in the US.
The time Union armies began marching
through the southern states,
freeing thousands
of slaves each day.
The news took months to reach Texas,
the westernmost state in the Confederacy.
On June 19th, 1865,
Major General Gordon Granger and 2000
Union troops rode into Galveston
and told slaves of their freedom.
Rangers words spread
through Texas all at once.
Slaves found out the war
was over and they were free.
Their joyous,
spontaneous celebration gave birth to
what we now know as Juneteenth Juneteenth,
the combination of the words June and 19th,
commemorates when the last enslaved
people in the South were finally
set free. Many slaves were met with
violence or death when they tried to leave.
Yet the promise of freedom extinguished
that fear and fueled generations to come.
Former slaves gathered on Juneteenth
the next year and the year after that.
And over the decades,
black communities observe the holiday
with festive family gatherings,
parades and barbecues.
Following the summer of protests in the
wake of George Floyd's murder in 2020,
private companies made Juneteenth a
permanent paid holiday for their workers.
In 2021, Congress passed legislation
and make it a federal holiday.
President Biden signed it into law.
Days later,
Juneteenth a celebration of independence,
the day all Americans were truly free joining
us. Now, Doctor Crystal Edens,
assistant professor of the.
In the Department of Africana
Studies and UNC Charlotte
Professor thanks for coming on.
We appreciate it.
Good morning, thank you for having me.
Alright, we're we're one
year into Juneteenth.
Being a federal holiday, why?
Why is that important?
And I think it's important because the
history of Juneteenth and it reminds
us of the longstanding struggle for
black freedom in the United States.
The holiday symbolizes June 19th, 1865,
the day that African Americans in Galveston
TX learned that the Civil War had ended,
and that two months earlier,
and that the Emancipation
Proclamation was in effect,
which freed 250,000 former slaves in Texas.
So the the date marked the beginning
of this long standing tradition
of celebrations making Juneteenth,
the oldest holiday that commemorates
the end of slavery in the United
States and I think that Juneteenth
remains a critically important time
for us as a society to honor the
lives of black Americans who were
enslaved in this country.
The contributions they made and
the legacies that they left.
Yeah, and I know there's sort of
a back and forth in a bit of a
controversy in that July 4th is
often called Independence Day,
but in a way. Juneteenth is its own.
Yes, absolutely, and I think that what
you're speaking to goes to the heart
of our questions around how we tell the
story of the history of this country.
We are now seeing a resistance,
I think, to the full and accurate
accounting of the history of slavery
and its impact on our society today.
There are folks who, you know,
want to ban critical race theory of
the 1619 project and other books
we're seeing this in other States
and it's really kind of motivated by.
These kind of long lasting
white supremacist ideologies,
essentially that you know,
misinterpret the history of slavery and
really kind of don't want us to fully
recognize that slavery really does sit
at the heart of who we are as a nation,
but Juneteenth helps us
to remember this truth,
and so incorporating that into the timeline
of of the the holidays that we recognize,
I think, is important.
Along with this sort of new sort
of attention that Judith has
gotten in the last few years,
it's become more commercialized
in ways Walmart gotten in trouble
with a Juneteenth ice cream.
This, this past year,
the thought is people should be
supporting Black owned businesses instead.
Talk about that.
Sure, yeah. Companies like Walmart and and
Dollar Tree were kind of caught red handed.
If you will. Attempting to capitalize
on the holiday by marketing Juneteenth
products to black consumers like ice cream
and paper plates and things like that,
really, you know, without any type
of context or any type of depth,
full engagement with issues
around racial justice.
And so, yeah, the kind of commercialization.
Of Juneteenth, I think, is is problematic,
but there are other companies
and and corporations that are,
you know, recognizing the holiday,
and so I think that you know
they're they're doing this,
as in a way to kind of help with
addressing the questions around
diversity and racial justice and equity
that have kind of been reignited,
or the calls that for these things
have been reignited in the past
two years since the resurgence
of the Black Lives Matter.
Movement and the murder of George Floyd.
But yes, absolutely.
You know.
Supporting Black owned businesses
and companies and supporting black
workers supporting black consumers
are all an important aspect of.
You know what Juneteenth represents.
You're talking about
corporations and businesses.
What about on on the person to person level?
For white folks out there who who want
to support their their black friends?
And what are? What are the best
ways to sort of Mark Juneteenth?
What? What are the dos and don'ts?
Well, that's an interesting question.
I think that people you know celebrate
Juneteenth in in various ways,
especially within the
African American community.
Many folks choose to celebrate by,
you know, coming together with
family and friends and and just
setting together to reflect.
But I think that you know,
reflection and learning is a great way
to for many black Americans as well
as white Americans to begin to really
think about what what our country is,
who we are as a nation,
and how the histories of slavery,
you know, continue to live with us and to.
Really reflect on what it means to be white.
I mean, that's I think that's
probably a great way for many white
Americans to to start to embrace
these histories and to embrace.
The you know,
positive and maybe not so positive
aspects of of whiteness and and
think about it and in critical
ways and begin to dismantle it.
I think you said reflection in learning.
I think reflection in learning would go
a long way for a lot of issues today.
For for all of us to do a little bit
more of that, Juneteenth is nothing new.
What do you think was was really
the impetus for this? What?
What do you think was changed?
The conversation changed the
narrative in the last few years.
Sure, well, so there have been, you know.
Again, this longstanding traditions
and celebrations that have the spread
across Black America since 1865.
But in recent years there's
been a woman named Opal Lee.
She's been mobilizing for years to
make Juneteenth a national holiday,
and her campaign gained 1.5
million signatures in support
of the holiday and recognition.
Finally came last year when Congress
passed a bill to designate Juneteenth.
It's a federal holiday,
and President Biden signed a
proclamation of observation,
but in reading that proclamation
that President Biden signed,
it spoke to the importance
of embracing equity,
equality and justice amid the law and
freedom struggle in this country against
racial violence and against more insidious,
systemic forms of racism.
So the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020,
as well as last year,
was the 100th.
Anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
and this was mentioned in the proclamation,
and so I think in tandem these two things
and as well as the ongoing activism,
kind of where the momentum to push for
better understanding of the legacies
of slavery and Jim Crow and put the
federal holiday designation kind of at
the forefront of that conversation.
Doctor Crystal Edens.
Dr, Thanks for going on,
talking to us about it,
but it was a really important
topic and and as I mentioned,
here's hoping for more.
Collection on learning for all of us.
Thank you.
Thank you for having me
we're flashpoint after this.