HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Along with the entire nation following the creation of a federal holiday in remembrance of its significance, Alabama A&M Athletics recognizes the importance and impact of the Juneteenth Day of Observance.
On Friday, June 18, 2021 President Joe Biden proclaimed it the first new federal holiday in nearly 40 years, and first since Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established in 1983.
This came nearly 155 years to the day that the Emancipation Proclamation was fully enforced nationwide on June 19, 1865 with the formal announcement in Galveston, Texas by Major General Gordon Granger. This came two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as the executive order was not enforced nationwide until after the Civil War.
On that day Granger read General Order Number 3:
"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 rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer."
The announcement in Galveston, Texas is regarded as the final one informing the nation and Juneteenth, a combination of the month and day it was made, has been celebrated informally for more than a century, first appearing in 1903.
In making Juneteenth and what it represents for our nation, Biden issued the following remarks:
Juneteenth is a day of profound weight and power.
A day in which we remember the moral stain and terrible toll of slavery on our country – what I've long called America's original sin. A long legacy of systemic racism, inequality, and inhumanity.
But it is a day that also reminds us of our incredible capacity to heal, hope, and emerge from our darkest moments with purpose and resolve.
As I said on the 100th Anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, great nations don't ignore the most painful chapters of their past. Great nations confront them. We come to terms with them.
On Juneteenth, we recommit ourselves to the work of equity, equality, and justice. And, we celebrate the centuries of struggle, courage, and hope that have brought us to this time of progress and possibility. That work has been led throughout our history by abolitionists and educators, civil rights advocates and lawyers, courageous activists and trade unionists, public officials and everyday Americans who have helped make real the ideals of our founding documents for all.
Together, we will lay the roots of real and lasting justice, so that we can become the extraordinary country that was promised to all Americans.
Juneteenth not only commemorates the past. It calls us to action today.
Alabama A&M Athletics echoes that sentiment and asks that we all take a moment not just to reflect on the significance of Juneteenth but what we can do make things better.
