Michael Franti & Spearhead De La Soul
The First Juneteenth Came at the End of the Civil War, This Year It’s During the Middle of a Revolution
Juneteenth historically has been a series of days, the ‘teen’ days of June, when we celebrate the end of slavery. It commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger read federal orders in Galveston, Texas that all previously enslaved people in Texas were free — even though the Emancipation Proclamation had formally freed them almost two-and-a-half years earlier. On Dec. 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It abolished slavery in the United States and said that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” So, although we celebrate an end to slavery, the 13th Amendment sti...
