Juneteenth [19 June 2026] and 250 years of hypocrisy
source: Workers World
published: 16 June 2026
Image Credit: Kelly Lacy at www.Pexels.com
Almost two weeks before the 250th celebration of the “founding” of the U.S., Juneteenth, a federal holiday, will take place on June 19.
Making Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021 was a long overdue recognition that on June 19, 1865, enslaved Black people were liberated in Galveston, Texas — two and a half years after the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation made by President Abraham Lincoln.
This historic day did not prevent Black people from being kidnapped from Texas to countries like Cuba or Brazil, where slavery still existed until the late 1880s, or even murdered by Texas enslavers.
Juneteenth is viewed by Black communities as the 'second day of independence,' following the U.S. 'independence' from Britain in 1776. Even before Juneteenth — also known as “Freedom Day” — was made a legal holiday, Black people celebrated this anniversary countrywide with marches and rallies, along with an array of social and cultural events.
Fast forward 161 years and the real meaning of Juneteenth — the ongoing fight for full social equality for Black people — continues to be under assault by an outright white supremacist U.S. president. Once #47 took office for the second time, he wasted little time laying off hundreds of thousands of federal workers, a hugely disproportionate number of them Black women. Many of these same workers were among those whose Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits were temporarily suspended.
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