Juneteenth, the town’s newest holiday, was celebrated Thursday, June 19. But falling as it does between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, it was easy to overlook this most enduring celebration of slavery’s abolition in the United States.
Juneteenth has been a state holiday since 2020 and a federal holiday since 2022. And in 2022, the Select Board voted unanimously to make the day a paid day off for benefit-eligible employees. As a result, Town Hall, the Harvard Senior Center, and the public library were all closed this past Thursday. And because Juneteenth is a federal holiday, post offices and banks were closed as well. And yet, as of noon Wednesday, there was no mention of the day on the town website, nor on the website of Arm in Arm, a civic organization that had pushed to make Juneteenth a municipal holiday.
Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans and signifies the end of slavery in the country. On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced General Order No. 3, which proclaimed the freedom of all slaves in Texas, 2½ years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued, freeing slaves throughout the U.S.
The Black population of Galveston began celebrating the event one year after the arrival of General Granger, making Juneteenth the oldest such commemoration in the country. Texas freedom celebrations for Juneteenth began with small, local events in 1866, eventually spreading throughout the South and other states in subsequent decades, as documented by historian Annette Gordon-Reed in her Pulitzer Prize-winning book “On Juneteenth.”
The day serves as a reminder of the struggle for freedom and equality faced by African Americans, and emphasizes the importance of recognizing and honoring their contributions to American society. In these fraught times, it’s a day worth remembering.
