Juneteenth: My Born Day History, Y’all

In June of 2021, the Juneteenth bill was signed into law in the U.S., creating a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.

What makes Juneteenth special for me is that it’s also my birthday — June 19, 1958. And my middle name? June, y’all. My parents were not playing with this day. So grab a nice slice of german chocolate cake, fix yourself a cold glass of milk and sit your behind down at my table so I can break it down to you the way my father, a Louisiana native, broke it down to me around about 1969 when I was growing up in California:

Juneteenth is named to commemorate and honor June 19, 1865, the day enslaved people in Texas learned they were free. two years after slavery had officially ended in 1863. In the state of Texas, when slaveowners got word that enslaved people had been freed, they took it upon themselves not to tell them, thus making them work for two more years. They didn’t tell them they were already free.

Huh? Naw, they didn’t tell them nothin’. Just let them keep working, knowing good and well they had already been freed. For two years! I know, ain’t that something? Lawd have mercy. Anyway.

Juneteenth was independence day for the enslaved in Texas in 1865. It was more meaningful to me as a black person in America than the Fourth of July. In fact, Juneteenth was the day enslaved persons in total became aware they were free in this country. And that is how it was told to my 3 children. There was no national parade or holiday or food booth required for us to recognize the deep importance of Juneteenth when I was growing up in the 1960s. During the 1960s through 1970s, it wasn’t quite the large celebration and commemoration as it is now — community members in the black built it up during the 1980s and 1990s to what it has become today: Huge events across the country.

In my house in the 1960s, it was a quiet day, as though my parents were holding a sacred space to commemorate this landmark day for us: Lightly celebratory yet somber, to honor those who toiled for two years at the hands of slaveowners to withhold the truth and stole two more years of free labor, because unbeknownst to enslaved persons in Texas, they had been freed all along, 24 months prior.

Imagine that. I can’t either.

So there you have it. Juneteenth is a day for: Commemoration. Celebration. Remembrance.

To have my birthday fall on Juneteenth makes it even more special, a day I hold dear to my heart. As I celebrate my 66th year, I reflect how over time I could never distinguish where Juneteenth ended and my birthday began. And to my father’s delight, Father’s Day would peek it’s head in on June 19th every few years and we celebrated 3 special days in one: Juneteenth, my birthday and Father’s Day. It just all melded together into one deeply meaningful day, year after year.

Oh and one last thought. In case you haven’t known about something, that doesn’t mean it never existed. More cake?