Juneteenth

the longest running African-American holiday

America’s second Independence Day,

to celebrate the end of slavery.

Early celebrations consisted of baseball, fishing, and rodeos.

African Americans were often prohibited from using public facilities for their

celebrations, so instead they were typically held at churches or outdoors near bodies

of water. Celebrations were characterized by elaborate large meals and people

wearing their best clothing. Formerly enslaved people and their descendants

made pilgrimages to Galveston, Texas, where the announcement of emancipation had

originally taken place. News coverage of early festivals

served to assimilate African-American memories

in the dominant ‘American story. A Federal holiday now,

we eat and read and listen to music.

This song especially.