The push to make Juneteenth--which is today, June 19--a federal holiday was a memorable one in part because it was such an overwhelmingly bipartisan effort. At least that's why it should be memorable.
As Landon and I covered, legislation to do so passed with unanimous consent in the U.S. Senate and by 415-14 in the U.S. House of Representatives. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law in a signing ceremony on Thursday, the day after it passed the House.
Since Juneteenth this year falls on a Saturday, federal workers were given off Friday, June 18.
Those present at the signing ceremony included members of the Congressional Black Caucus; Republican Sen. John Cornyn and Democratic Rep. Shiela Jackson Lee, who are both Texans; and 94-year old Ms. Opal Lee, considered the grandmother of Juneteenth.
On June 19, 1865, slaves in the Confederacy learned they had been freed over two years prior from the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth has special significance for Texas, as the order came from Galveston.
The significance of the bipartisan commemoration was tainted almost immediately.
President Joe Biden used the signing ceremony, as I reported, as an opportunity to claim and focus on other areas African-Americans were missing out on. This included vaccination rates and voting rights:
To honor the true meaning of Juneteenth, we have to continue toward that promise because we’ve not gotten there yet. The Vice President and I and our entire administration and all of you in this room are committed to doing just that.
...
Folks, the promise of equality is not going to be fulfilled until we become real — it becomes real in our schools and on our Main Streets and in our neighborhoods — our healthcare system and ensuring that equity is at the heart of our fight against the pandemic; in the water that comes out of our faucets and the air that we breathe in our communities; in our justice system — so that we can fulfill the promise of America for all people. All of our people.
And it’s not going to be fulfilled so long as the sacred right to vote remains under attack.
We see this assault from restrictive laws, threats of intimidation, voter purges, and more — an assault that offends the very democracy — our very democracy.
We can’t rest until the promise of equality is fulfilled for every one of us in every corner of this nation. That, to me, is the meaning of Juneteenth. That’s what it’s about.
So let’s make this June- — this very Juneteenth, tomorrow — the first that our nation will celebrate all together, as one nation — a Juneteenth of action on many fronts.
One of those is vaccinations. Tomorrow, the Vice President will be in Atlanta on a bus tour, helping to spread the word, like all of you have been doing, on lifesaving vaccines.
And across the country this weekend, including here in Washington, people will be canvassing and hosting events in their communities, going door-to-door, encouraging vaccinations.
We’ve built equity into the heart of the vaccination program from day one, but we still have more work to do to close the racial gap in vaccination rates. The more we can do that, the more we can save lives....
And that’s why we must understand that Juneteenth represents not only the commemoration of the end of slavery in America more than 150 years ago, but the ongoing work to have to bring true equity and racial justice into American society, which we can do.
In short, this day doesn’t just celebrate the past; it calls for action today.
This virtue signaling does not end with the president.
In an op-ed for MarketWatch, singer Macy Gray used Juneteenth as an excuse to claim "For Juneteenth, America needs a new flag that all of us can honor," in which she likened the American flag to the Confederate flag:
President Biden, Madame Harris and members of Congress: the American flag has been hijacked as code for a specific belief. God bless those believers, they can have it. Like the Confederate, it is tattered, dated, divisive, and incorrect. It no longer represents democracy and freedom. It no longer represents ALL of us. It’s not fair to be forced to honor it. It’s time for a new flag.
Countless others have used the day as an excuse to call for reparations.
Rep. Jackson Lee, as Kierra Frazier with Axios reported, said Juneteenth "is also the launching point for correcting the social ills, like improving our police community relationships, getting the voting system turned right side up, making sure we don't have that unfortunate situation of people being denied the right to vote.
She has also called for a commission to study reparations.
Great. Let’s get it done and do reparations next. https://t.co/Kc6Lm76PsB
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) June 16, 2021
Proud #Juneteenth is now a federal holiday.
— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) June 19, 2021
As we reflect on the significance of what this day symbolizes, let’s keep fighting to address the lasting consequences of slavery.
Next step: reparations.
Happy Juneteenth!
— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) June 19, 2021
Black folks deserve joy, rest, celebration, reparations, safety, health care, financial freedom, the chance to witness the end of the carceral state and full liberation ??
As Nigel Duara with CalMatters reported, "Los Angeles, Sacramento announce reparations coalition on Juneteenth."
Others issuing a call for reparations included:
- Andre M. Perry and Rashawn Ray's "As Juneteenth becomes a federal holiday, the US needs a culture of reparations" for The Brookings Institution
- Jade Magnus Ogunnaike's "Juneteenth Is More Than a Federal Holiday. We Need Reparations Now" for The Root
- In an op-ed for The Los Angeles Times, Clyde W. Ford's "Without a U.S. plan for reparations, Juneteenth is a hollow national holiday."
- Morgan Simon's "Congress Made Juneteenth A Holiday In Just 3 Days. Why is Reparations Taking Over 30 Years?" for Forbes
- BET published Color of Change's opinion piece, "Juneteenth And The Ongoing Fight For Reparations," with the subheadline reading "Here are five ways you can work towards rebuilding a society where both Black lives and justice matter."
- A lamentation from Deon Osborne that "Congress members vote yes on Juneteenth, remain silent on reparations" for The Black Wall Street Times
There's also local coverage of activists calling for reparations in cities such as Greenville, St. Paul, and Newark.
WBEZ Chicago, with NPR, published "'We Are In An Era of Repair': One Reparations Advocate Reflects On Juneteenth" by Odette Yousef.
It's one thing for the American people to be able to come together to commemorate such an occasion. Again, it receive unanimous support in the Senate, and while it did not in the House, it came close to it.
Sen. Cornyn made it clear that he did not find reasons against the legislation compelling. Others, however, might.
Kooky https://t.co/O3gPnJCyiR
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) June 16, 2021
A particularly outspoken critic was Rep, Matt Rosendale (R-MT), who expressed his opposition via a press release and on Twitter.
"Let’s call an ace an ace. This is an effort by the Left to create a day out of whole cloth to celebrate identity politics as part of its larger efforts to make Critical Race Theory the reigning ideology of our country. Since I believe in treating everyone equally, regardless of race, and that we should be focused on what unites us rather than our differences, I will vote no," his statement read in a press release.
Their intent is to replace the Fourth of July with this new day, one that will inevitably focus on America's darkest moments.
— Matt Rosendale (@RepRosendale) June 16, 2021
We're not perfect as a country, but we are a great nation, morally, economically, culturally, and in many other ways besides. I will never support efforts to pull down that legacy and replace it with self-hatred.
— Matt Rosendale (@RepRosendale) June 16, 2021
African-Americans are also not unified in how they view Juneteenth.
Kay Cole James, president of the Heritage Foundation, opined that "Juneteenth is a perfect answer to those who are promoting critical race theory,' as Landon reported.
Ryan Bomberger, who has written about Juneteenth for Townhall over several years, noted in this year's column:
Juneteenth doesn’t belong to one group of people. It belongs to all Americans. It’s a testament to the unity of both black and white people who went to great lengths to break the chains of bondage. It can be a great reminder to the American public and the world how the Democratic Party went to war to protect the evil of slavery, but a radical Republican named Abraham Lincoln altered the trajectory of a nation. No amount of 1619 revisionism can change that. Biden even proclaimed at the bill signing: “Great nations don’t ignore their most painful moments, they embrace them. We come to terms with mistakes we’ve made.” He kept invoking “equity” and “racial justice” but failed to take seize the perfect moment to apologize on behalf of the Democrat Party’s pro-slavery DNA, inequalities and racial injustices. He didn’t. Instead, he nihilistically declared: “Hate only hides. It never goes away.”
I reject that. I’ve seen too many transformed people in my life to accept that hopeless lie. I believe too much in a God (notice, not a government) that truly transforms us into new creations.
Juneteenth commemorates the collective realization that our national creed, "created equal,” was becoming a (slow but assured) reality. That equality, because it’s not given to us by man or woman or governmental institution, should start at the moment we’re created—the moment of conception. Sadly, half the country doesn’t believe this today and supports another group of human beings being dehumanized and discriminated against for who they are. The unborn are violently treated like property, and just as with the institution of slavery, deemed less than human. Nothing good ever comes from denying any person’s humanity.
I don’t play the game of semantics. Every person is a human. Every human is a person.
Juneteenth is about the emancipation of an entire nation--of freeing those previously shackled and preventing former shacklers from treating fellow human beings like property. It’s a reminder of the biblical principle that we're created from one blood (Acts 17:26) implemented in the natural. Yes. We’re one beautifully colorful human race.
We would do well as a nation to keep that in mind.
