By LaNesha McCoy (DeBardelaben), Executive Director, BlackPast.org
Juneteenth is about many things: freedom, jubilation, family, the end of slavery. But at its core, Juneteenth is about truth.
The enslaved people of Galveston, Texas lived nearly two and a half years unaware that the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by President Abraham Lincoln with the counsel of Frederick Douglass, had already declared them free. For more than two years, they labored under a lie, exploited by those who understood that withholding truth was a tool of white supremacy.
As belated historian Dr. Quintard Taylor once explained, “Isolated from both Union and Confederate forces during the Civil War and thus spared horrific battles on its soil, Texas became a place of refuge for slaveholders seeking to ensure that their ‘property’ would not hear of freedom.” Until June of 1865, that strategy worked. Only on June 19, 1865, after Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston with 2,000 federal troops, did freedom finally reach the last enslaved people in the Confederacy. From the balcony of Ashton Villa, Granger read General Order No. 3, and the truth could no longer be suppressed.
Juneteenth grew from a local celebration into a regional tradition, then into a national symbol of resilience and remembrance. After generations of advocacy, it became a federal holiday in 2021.
But the truth still needs defending.
Today, in a climate of heightened backlash against diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, the very platforms that preserve and teach Black history are increasingly targeted. As Black history is stripped from school curricula, museums, and public institutions, the number of places where people can access accurate, high-quality information continues to shrink. While books about Black life, culture, and history are banned, resources like BlackPast.org must never be silenced, not by censorship, not by erasure, and not by cyberattacks.
Because if we do not defend Juneteenth and Black history, who will?
BlackPast.org is the truth–10,000 pages of it. It is the world’s largest online encyclopedia dedicated to accessible, rigorously sourced African American and global Black history. At a moment when misinformation spreads quickly, sites like BlackPast.org steps forward with resolve to the truth and defend Black history. Visit BlackPast.org to learn more about Juneteenth, thousands of other stories about the past, and the defense of Black history.
