Letter to editor: June celebrates Black music and Juneteenth Freedom Day
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter declared June as Black Music Month, setting aside this time to recognize the profound influence of Black music on the United States and the world. Although President Carter made this designation in 1979, it wasn’t until 2000 that a presidential proclamation for the month was signed. In 2009, President Barack Obama renamed it African-American Music Appreciation Month. This month celebrates the African American musical contributions that form an essential part of our nation’s treasured cultural heritage.
June also hosts another significant tradition in both Black and American history. Three years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which officially outlawed slavery in Texas and other states in rebellion against the Union, many Black people, especially in the deep South, remained enslaved. Many plantation owners refused to inform and free their slaves until June 19, 1865. On that day, General Gordon Granger, accompanied by the Union Army, marched into Galveston, Texas, one of the last southern strongholds, and officially freed most of the enslaved Black people in the Confederacy. It’s important to note that slavery remained legal and practiced in two Union border states, Delaware and Kentucky, until later that year when the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment abolished chattel slavery nationwide in December.
This event gave birth to Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day, and Emancipation Day. Juneteenth is a holiday celebrating the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States. Originating in Galveston, Texas, it is now celebrated annually on June 19th throughout the United States, with varying levels of official recognition. It commemorates the announcement of freedom from slavery in Texas by Union Army General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865.
The Ambler Branch of the NAACP is proud to share these two significant and important pieces of Black history. As the African proverb says, “Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”
Shaykh Anwar Muhammad
President, Ambler Branch NAACP
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