Teaching Juneteenth

Editor’s note: Since the publication of this article, Juneteenth was declared a federal national holiday in 2021.

Each year around June 19, Black communities across the country unite for a family reunion of sorts. Juneteenth activities feature the sights and sounds of Blackness: People enjoying art, music and food that connect them to a shared ancestry and history. They celebrate being their authentic selves. They celebrate freedom in both solemn and festive ceremonies.  

This celebration marks a day in 1865 when enslaved Texans learned they’d be free—two months after Robert E. Lee surrendered and ended the Civil War and two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Initially a uniquely Texan observance, Juneteenth has now been recognized in some form in every corner of the country.

There are many ways to teach students about this celebration. Lessons about Juneteenth need to recognize the challenges those who fight injustice have always faced, but they shouldn’t be marked only by the tragedy of enslavement. Students, particularly Black students, can find empowerment in the jubilant celebrations of culture, activism and the humanity of a people.

Teaching Juneteenth: Culture as Resistance

Although the truth had been hidden from them—and they continued to face threats of continued oppression, violence and death—a year after they learned of their freedom, formerly enslaved people resiliently rallied around that date and made the celebration an annual ritual. Early Juneteenth observances included a search for lost family members and an opportunity to uplift each other as they moved through hostile environments. 

With this knowledge, students can also identify ways the descendants of the enslaved recapture and honor the cultures, customs and practices lost through slavery. 

Early celebrations involved readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, religious ceremonies, singing, games and enjoying foods that enslaved people ate. Today, it doesn’t look that much different. People retell histories, have family reunions, eat foods reminiscent of early Juneteenth celebrations such as barbeque, attend religious services or choir performances and have elaborate displays such as fancy dress and parades. 

Teaching Juneteenth: Understanding Emancipation

That’s why Juneteenth is more than an observance of freedom. It’s also a time to share the experiences of those who fought—literally and figuratively—to seek true freedom for future generations. It’s important that we don’t whitewash this history. 

A common mistake among those who teach the history of American slavery is to center the U.S. government’s role in granting freedom while also placing the onus to navigate through a racist society solely on the formerly enslaved.

Perhaps many center Lincoln in this history because we tend to think of the Emancipation Proclamation, instead of the 13th Amendment, as ending slavery. Our 2018 Teaching Hard History report found that 59 percent of high school students couldn’t correctly identify the latter as the legal end to slavery in the United States. 

But it’s important for students to know that enslaved people didn’t willfully accept enslavement or wait for others to free them. They resisted often and consistently. While rare, violent rebellions did occur. Some people successfully escaped enslavement. And everyday acts of resistance, such as breaking tools or pretending to be ill were other ways enslaved people asserted their humanity. 

While it certainly encouraged enslaved people to liberate themselves (letting them know they wouldn’t be re-enslaved if they escaped behind Union lines), the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t end U.S. slavery because it didn't apply to Union states. January 31, 1865 marks the day the 13th Amendment—which officially abolished slavery in the United States—was passed in Congress. Students need to know that there were people enslaved in Delaware until December 6, 1865, the day the 13th Amendment was finally ratified. 

Juneteenth offers an opportunity to talk to students about this complex history. When you do, you can also talk about the progress and opposing forces that continue to threaten all of these milestones, even though they’re protected by the Constitution of the United States. 

Teaching Juneteenth: Backlash to Freedom

American history has often been reduced to a simple story of continuous progress. In this context, the Emancipation Proclamation represents an important turning point—the country coming to its senses and setting the course for concrete steps toward true equality.

But it’s important for students to know that the announcement—and the celebration afterward—was short-lived and riddled with setbacks, including violence. For example, some enslavers intentionally waited until the harvest before they announced that the enslaved were freed. 

And some people taking advantage of their freedom were met with terror or even death. Newly freed people didn’t have protection until September 1865 with the creation of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and even those efforts were often thwarted during Reconstruction. 

As former TT Associate Editor Julia Delacroix points out, “Students tend to think of the fight for civil rights as though there has always been a set list of hurdles to be overcome—slavery, then racial terror, then segregation, then disenfranchisement, then mass incarceration.”

But we know that “racism takes the shape of whatever will hold it.” Barriers to freedom weren’t predestined, but they do confirm that there has always been a force to maintain racial hierarchy by pushing back against change. 

In other words, with each attempt to bring justice and equality to all people, there is often a quick and fierce response. With each victory, there is yet another dueling force to conquer. The announcement of emancipation was no exception, and Juneteenth is a perfect opening to invite students to think about the “story of America” they often hear.

Teaching Juneteenth: American Ideals

It’s not too challenging to ask students to consider what Juneteenth tells us about our ideas about the United States. After all, another holiday—July Fourth—is in the shadow of Juneteenth. It’s a time when Americans are encouraged to rejoice in the nation’s independence...and freedom. 

Students might recognize a paradox with July Fourth celebrations. They might question how a country could have touted the idea of freedom and liberty for all while also oppressing and treating an entire group of people as property. Those celebrations of independence went on for 89 years before the United States abolished slavery.

Abolitionist Frederick Douglass acknowledged this as “inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony” during his July 5, 1852 speech in Rochester, New York.