Juneteenth 2022

Juneteenth is the first federal holiday attained since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established in 1983.

While many people are celebrating the legislative victory in recognizing Juneteenth as a state holiday, the recognition, which was 14 years in the making, did not come without a fight.

On paper Black people were free, but in reality, in the physical world, Black people found themselves, particularly during the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras in the South, living in a state of oppression and some were even in a perpetual state of servitude.

Eddie Smith, an illustrator and concept designer, was chosen to design this year’s cover page for the Seattle Medium Newspaper’s Juneteenth Edition.

Juneteenth marks the day African Americans in the state of Texas belatedly received word that President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had freed the nation’s slaves.

According to the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation, the Juneteenth Flag represents a star of Texas bursting with new freedom throughout the land, over a new horizon. The Juneteenth Flag also represents a new freedom, a new people, and a new star.

On June 19, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and issued General Order Number 3, effectively freeing slaves in the South.

Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation, it captured the hearts and imagination of millions of Americans and fundamentally transformed the character of the war.

In 1872, Yates and other Freedman’s town residents – Elias Dibble, Richard Allen and Richard Brock – purchased the 10 acres of land at the corner of Dowling Avenue (now Emancipation Avenue) and Elgin, and named it Emancipation Park, in honor of their newly received freedom, and as a place to organize and celebrate Juneteenth with their families for generations to come.