Ending slavery was a good thing. When Union General Gordon Granger landed in Galveston on June 19, 1865 and announced that the black population in Texas was now free, it was a good thing!

No man in any age should have been a slave or even a serf.

Unfortunately, we don't celebrate this holiday as a nation for no good reason as we should. In my opinion, June 19th is seen by most as a divisive day. This is wrong. We should have parades and fireworks and celebrations on June 19th. I am not a bleeding heart liberal. I have never voted for a democrat once in my 65 years. I am just a Christian that believes that we need to love our fellow man. I am not virtue signaling. I am no better than anyone else.

Back to the point of the post, many citizens fought and died defeating the Confederacy and therefore defeating slavery. Their sacrifice should be honored. And those who died fighting defending the Confederacy should not be denigrated either.

I like many of you raised in the south have many ancestors that fought for the south defending their home, their communities and their neighbors. By the time you get to your 4th great-grandfather you have 32 of them. If you get to your 5th great-grandfather there are 64 of them. This is for every conservative, liberal, radical, anarchist, Christian, pedestrian and one hour drycleaned.

Let's decide to make our country better and stronger by celebrating the good parts of our history. June 19th 1865 was a great day! My admonition and suggestion is for each of us to use our influence for the good where we can.

June 19th was not the end of slavery anywhere.

hth

It was chosen as a holiday to pander to the left in the wake of awful racial protests. No one outside of Texas really knew about it before then. I have no problem celebrating the end of slavery but they forced that holiday on people and there is some resentment about it.

Because it is an artificial thing that they made up to supplant the real independence day. It's a steaming pile of leftist horse crap.

The Emancipation Proclamation didn't free a single slave - it announced emancipation of Confederate slaves, and those states didn't recognize the Union laws.

Announcing that Texan slaves were free in the eyes of the Union didn't free a single slave under the recognized state and Confederate laws of the time. Slaves were freed bit by bit under martial law and I'm Reconstruction.

Making a state day a Federal Holiday is only pandering. IMO, Juneteenth should be recognized like St. Patrick's Day or Cinco de Mayo - a celebration of a culture. It shouldn't be recognized like Thanksgiving or July 4. If anything, January 1, 1863 should be celebrated as Emancipation Day. Not June 19, 1865.

We have July 4th, a couple of weeks later, that does that for ALL Americans. There are many great days in history that are significant that we do not celebrate or even recognize. We should just kick off Freedom with Juneteenth and end with the big show for July 4th.

Why can't we call it June 19th? Juneteenth sounds stupid.

Juneteenth is just the day that slaves in Texas were notified of the Emancipation Proclamation. There is no reason for a holiday. There is no reason to celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation either, as that only freed slaves in 10 states. A better day, should it be necessary for a celebration, would be the day that the 14th Amendment was ratified.

Quote:

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A better day, should it be necessary for a celebration, would be the day that the 14th Amendment was ratified.

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13th would be even better

1) It's historically inaccurate as it was not the end of slavery anywhere but Galveston Texas and has no national value whatsoever because…

2) Emancipation Day is what you would choose if you really wanted to celebrate the real end of slavery in the US but that's Dec 6th, well after November elections are done and therefore useless to Democrats as the real point of the holiday which is…

3) An annual day to create hatred and resentment and division and in election years, it does this before Election Day for maximum impact

Can you post some photos from your celebration so we can get an idea of what you have in mind?

Unknown_handle said:

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June 19th is the day that many black Americans at a minimum commemorate as an important date in their history. So why do not blacks seem to feel the need to inject your opinion were it is neither wanted or welcome.

I suggest that we learn to love people where they are and not whate you want them to be.

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No one said they can celebrate it any less than Saint Patrick's, Cinco de Mayo or any other American ethnic pride holiday.

But the question remains: why does it get Federal Status when the other do not?

The answer is Democrat politics of hate and division

slavery was an indelible stain on one of mankind's greatest documents. Ending slavery helped usher in the ideals of our nation outlined in the Declaration of Independence

Celebrating freeing of the slaves is definitely worthy of celebration and a national holiday for those reasons.

However, Juneteenth was not a good choice for that day. And when you know why it was chosen, then you know it's a terrible idea

Kansas Kid said:

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It is a Federal Holiday so I don't get your claim of it not being celebrated. If it is that we don't do big parades, fireworks, or anything like that, see the posts above.

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The celebrants have their own way of celebrating. See Chicago Juneteenth thread.

Unknown_handle said:

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June 19th is the day that many black Americans at a minimum commemorate as an important date in their history. So why do not blacks seem to feel the need to inject your opinion were it is neither wanted or welcome.

I suggest that we learn to love people where they are and not whate you want them to be.

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Do the ancestors of the thousands of black southern slave owners also celebrate?

June 19th is meant to divide, nothing more imo. It's a rejection of American independence and a replacement for it. I will never celebrate it.

When there are "Juneteenth" parties.....people die....so.....

Tell us why you think an event that only had relevance in one Texas town should be celebrated on the national level. It wasn't the end of slavery in Texas, the Confederacy or the United States. So then why is it a national holiday? Explain it to us.

I've seen black folks get butt hurt about people not celebrating MLK Day, but also I see people working on the fourth, Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving day. Why worry about what other folks do or not do?

The answer to your OP is because it was declared a national holiday to pander to a select group of people, and that group is a minority of the US population. The Irish make up 9.5% of the US population. Should St. Patrick's Day be declared a federal holiday?

we don't celebrate it because no one wanted it or asked for it, and it's so obscure that most people still don't even know what it is even now that it's a federal holiday.

I always try to explain to people (from a historical perspective) that Juneteenth was a Texas thing and shouldn't be a national thing but nobody cares.