Origin of Juneteenth
Juneteenth, the United States’ oldest celebrated commemoration of the ending of the enslavement of African Americans, originated in Galveston, Texas. On June 19, 1865, two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Union General Gordon Granger read General Order Number 3 to the people of Texas, officially declaring the freedom of the state’s enslaved African Americans.
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation set free all U.S. African American slaves within entire or designated parts of the Confederate states. Lincoln framed it as a war measure intended to weaken the Confederacy and preserve the Union, but it soon became the moral center of the Union’s war effort. Though it did not end slavery for all, it led the way to the full abolishment of slavery.
General Order Number 3
The order is brief:
The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.
Juneteenth Today
Officially recognized as a federal U.S. holiday in 2021, today Juneteenth commemorates African American freedom with celebrations, speaking events, picnics and family gatherings emphasizing education and achievement. It is a time for reflection and rejoicing, assessment, self-improvement, and planning the future.
Racial Justice Resource Center
Brown University Library invites you to learn and reflect on Juneteenth in the Racial Justice Resource Center, located on the 2nd floor of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library.
The center serves as a hub for the study of racism and racial justice in the United States and globally. It is a space for members of the Brown community to create new possibilities for advancing research, instruction, learning, and community around ideas of racial justice. Resources available within the center explore race-based oppression, discrimination, policy, and the activism and efforts to confront them across disciplines. We offer this space for the Brown community to deepen knowledge and engage in the work of cultivating an environment in which every person is treated with dignity and respect.
Recommended Resources
We encourage you to commemorate Juneteenth in the center exploring these titles:
- If We Are Brave: Essays from Black Americana by Theodore R. Johnson
- The Civil Rights Movement from the Library of Congress
- Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy Taylor
- The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson