What is Juneteenth? If you are like me, you may know little about the history of this federal holiday created in 2021, so let me share a brief history.

We may remember from our history classes that the first enslaved African people arrived in what was to become the U S in the year 1619. Slavery expanded in the US, mostly in what were to become Confederate States, until laws against it began to be enacted. We are all familiar with the Executive Order signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 known as the Emancipation Proclamation declaring that approximately 3.5 million enslaved persons living in these states were to be freed from the bonds of slavery. It took until the end of the Civil War and the creation, ratification, and proclamation of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution in 1865 before this law was implemented and enforced in all of the Confederate States. Texas was the last to receive the news when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston on June 19th, 1865 and it was there the following year that the first Juneteenth celebration took place among those now free. Texas also became the first state to make Juneteenth a state holiday. This was in 1979. In 2021 this date was officially recognized as a United States federal holiday.

We know that change takes time and is received on many levels before it takes hold within us. It took 246 years from the arrival of the first slaves to the passing of the 13th Amendment of our Constitution, and another 156 years before our moving beyond the implementation of the law forbidding the “owning” of human beings to a national federal holiday celebrating the independence of our brothers and sisters held in forced captivity; 406 years in all.

How many more years before all people(s) are recognized and truly welcomed into our hearts and homes as the children of God they are?

Only we can begin to answer that question. Maybe we can start by celebrating this year’s Juneteenth.

-Terri Sersch