Is Juneteenth our only National holiday to commemorate a local event?

Most, if not all, of our National holidays commemorate events or people of National import. Fourth of July, Memorial Day, President's Day, etc.

Juneteenth was the announcement to slaves on Galveston Island that they were free. It had no effect on slaves elsewhere, say Alabama, and none on other citizens of the USA. Nor does it commemorate the ending of slavery, as slaves in the Union states were not freed until the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865, and slaves in Indian Territory even later than that.

(06-19-2023 08:28 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Is Juneteenth our only National holiday to commemorate a local event?

Most, if not all, of our National holidays commemorate events or people of National import. Fourth of July, Memorial Day, President's Day, etc.

Juneteenth was the announcement to slaves on Galveston Island that they were free. It had no effect on slaves elsewhere, say Alabama, and none on other citizens of the USA. Nor does it commemorate the ending of slavery, as slaves in the Union states were not freed until the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865, and slaves in Indian Territory even later than that.

Juneteenth is a celebration of a nation-wide event. It's a holiday celebrating the end of slavery.

The selected date coincides with the date that Union troops announced the Emancipation Proclamation to the enslaved peoples in Galveston. So there are local roots, but it's meant to celebrate an event of larger significance (and as you note, one of a larger temporal scale).

My understanding is that Juneteenth started as a hyper-local celebration in Galveston and spread throughout the US over time. It's not a date that represents more than the single act of announcing the slaves of Galveston were free.

(06-19-2023 08:56 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  It's not a date that represents more than the single act of announcing the slaves of Galveston were free.

Exactly.

Ironically, the slaves in the Union States were not yet free at the time of the Galveston announcement, nor were the slaves in the Indian territories.

I can think of several dates that come closer to representing the cessation of slavery in this country: September 22, January 1, December 6.

(06-19-2023 10:01 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(06-19-2023 08:56 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  It's not a date that represents more than the single act of announcing the slaves of Galveston were free.

Exactly.

Ironically, the slaves in the Union States were not yet free at the time of the Galveston announcement, nor were the slaves in the Indian territories.

I can think of several dates that come closer to representing the cessation of slavery in this country: September 22, January 1, December 6.

Not sure how they chose Juneteenth as the one to celebrate the cessation of slavery. My guess (not having done any research) is that Juneteenth is the day that black people were celebrating rather than those other dates that you listed.

(06-19-2023 10:59 AM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(06-19-2023 10:01 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(06-19-2023 08:56 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  It's not a date that represents more than the single act of announcing the slaves of Galveston were free.

Exactly.

Ironically, the slaves in the Union States were not yet free at the time of the Galveston announcement, nor were the slaves in the Indian territories.

I can think of several dates that come closer to representing the cessation of slavery in this country: September 22, January 1, December 6.

Not sure how they chose Juneteenth as the one to celebrate the cessation of slavery. My guess (not having done any research) is that Juneteenth is the day that black people were celebrating rather than those other dates that you listed.

I am sure it was political pressure from certain groups. The Jan 1 date (the day the Emancipation Proclamation took effect) is already being celebrated as New Year's Day. The other two dates (the issuance of the EP and the passage of the 13th Amendment) are certainly more obscure.

Just seems odd to have a purely local event as the basis for a national holiday. Why not the date of the CSA surrender?

(06-19-2023 11:37 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(06-19-2023 10:59 AM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(06-19-2023 10:01 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(06-19-2023 08:56 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  It's not a date that represents more than the single act of announcing the slaves of Galveston were free.

Exactly.

Ironically, the slaves in the Union States were not yet free at the time of the Galveston announcement, nor were the slaves in the Indian territories.

I can think of several dates that come closer to representing the cessation of slavery in this country: September 22, January 1, December 6.

Not sure how they chose Juneteenth as the one to celebrate the cessation of slavery. My guess (not having done any research) is that Juneteenth is the day that black people were celebrating rather than those other dates that you listed.

I am sure it was political pressure from certain groups. The Jan 1 date (the day the Emancipation Proclamation took effect) is already being celebrated as New Year's Day. The other two dates (the issuance of the EP and the passage of the 13th Amendment) are certainly more obscure.

Just seems odd to have a purely local event as the basis for a national holiday. Why not the date of the CSA surrender?

I don't think it is purely local, though. Juneteenth started locally but had spread nationwide well before the holiday was named.

Most states in the country officially observed Juneteenth by the early to mid 2000s (the earliest I saw was Florida in 1991). https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...l-holiday/

Lots of similar questions about this date being circulated today.

https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status...58752?s=12

Good to know i am not alone in noticing the anomaly. I find the Alvin Bragg item farther down more interesting, though.

When it comes time to award other minorities their very own "National" holiday, I wonder if the Native Americans will choose to commemorate Custer's Last Stand.

(06-20-2023 08:22 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Good to know i am not alone in noticing the anomaly. I find the Alvin Bragg item farther down more interesting, though.

When it comes time to award other minorities their very own "National" holiday, I wonder if the Native Americans will choose to commemorate Custer's Last Stand.

I think celebrating the decision to end slavery, which is a blight on our nation's history, is something all should celebrate.

We have multiple federal holidays that recognize people and achievements that are more directly related to a smaller subset of the population. But we feel that those people and achievements are substantial enough to warrant a national holiday. MLK Day, Memorial Day, and Veteran's Day being the most prominent ones in my mind.

(06-20-2023 09:06 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(06-20-2023 08:22 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Good to know i am not alone in noticing the anomaly. I find the Alvin Bragg item farther down more interesting, though.

When it comes time to award other minorities their very own "National" holiday, I wonder if the Native Americans will choose to commemorate Custer's Last Stand.

I think celebrating the decision to end slavery, which is a blight on our nation's history, is something all should celebrate.

We have multiple federal holidays that recognize people and achievements that are more directly related to a smaller subset of the population. But we feel that those people and achievements are substantial enough to warrant a national holiday. MLK Day, Memorial Day, and Veteran's Day being the most prominent ones in my mind.

Yeah... not sure why this seemingly has become a red/blue issue but LOTS of grumbling about it on social media RN.

Like 93 said upthread, I think the federal government went with June 19/Juneteenth as it was already being celebrated and didn’t want to reinvent the wheel.

Never really thought of it as “awarding” a group a holiday, but I think the eradication of slavery is something everyone can celebrate/recognize as a good thing for the country.

(06-20-2023 08:22 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Good to know i am not alone in noticing the anomaly. I find the Alvin Bragg item farther down more interesting, though.

When it comes time to award other minorities their very own "National" holiday, I wonder if the Native Americans will choose to commemorate Custer's Last Stand.

Interesting use of quotations.

(06-20-2023 09:32 AM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(06-20-2023 08:22 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Good to know i am not alone in noticing the anomaly. I find the Alvin Bragg item farther down more interesting, though.

When it comes time to award other minorities their very own "National" holiday, I wonder if the Native Americans will choose to commemorate Custer's Last Stand.

Interesting use of quotations.

It was intentional. Most of our nation did not not do much to "celebrate" this holiday. I don't see it as a "national" holiday.

(06-20-2023 11:19 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(06-20-2023 09:32 AM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(06-20-2023 08:22 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Good to know i am not alone in noticing the anomaly. I find the Alvin Bragg item farther down more interesting, though.

When it comes time to award other minorities their very own "National" holiday, I wonder if the Native Americans will choose to commemorate Custer's Last Stand.

Interesting use of quotations.

It was intentional. Most of our nation did not not do much to "celebrate" this holiday. I don't see it as a "national" holiday.

Did much of the country celebrate MLK’s birthday? Or did they celebrate the workers of the nation?

What about St Paddy’s day - lots of celebrations across the country, should it be a federal holiday?

I don’t think the frequency/breadth of existing celebrations makes sense as the way to define what is recognized as a federal holiday. It should be based on whether or not there is an issue/person that we believe should be celebrated.

You guys are all missing the essential value of this and other similar holidays:

We are all better off when government workers, labor unions, universities and the like take the day off than when they are at their desks putting their stupidities into action.

(06-20-2023 11:19 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(06-20-2023 09:32 AM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(06-20-2023 08:22 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Good to know i am not alone in noticing the anomaly. I find the Alvin Bragg item farther down more interesting, though.

When it comes time to award other minorities their very own "National" holiday, I wonder if the Native Americans will choose to commemorate Custer's Last Stand.

Interesting use of quotations.

It was intentional. Most of our nation did not not do much to "celebrate" this holiday. I don't see it as a "national" holiday.

How many Americans "celebrated" Columbus Day before it was established as a "national" holiday? How many "celebrated" Labor Day?

*edit* Brain-melding with an Amigo

(06-20-2023 09:28 AM)BSWBRice Wrote:  Never really thought of it as “awarding” a group a holiday, but I think the eradication of slavery is something everyone can celebrate/recognize as a good thing for the country.

Eradication of slavery? Hardly.

The US abolished slavery in 1865, but slavery still exists in the US, i.e., forced prostitution, and is still legal in many other countries, 94 per the World Economic Forum. Slavery is far from being eradicated.

(06-20-2023 11:25 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  You guys are all missing the essential value of this and other similar holidays:

We are all better off when government workers, labor unions, universities and the like take the day off than when they are at their desks putting their stupidities into action.

+1

(06-20-2023 09:06 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(06-20-2023 08:22 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Good to know i am not alone in noticing the anomaly. I find the Alvin Bragg item farther down more interesting, though.

When it comes time to award other minorities their very own "National" holiday, I wonder if the Native Americans will choose to commemorate Custer's Last Stand.

I think celebrating the decision to end slavery, which is a blight on our nation's history, is something all should celebrate.

We have multiple federal holidays that recognize people and achievements that are more directly related to a smaller subset of the population. But we feel that those people and achievements are substantial enough to warrant a national holiday. MLK Day, Memorial Day, and Veteran's Day being the most prominent ones in my mind.

I see Memorial Day as the day we honor our NATION's military dead, Veteran's Day as the day we honor our NATION's military members, and MLK was at least a NATIONAL FIGURE.

I also wonder what are the Federal holidays that, in your words, "recognize people and achievements that are more directly related to a smaller subset of the population." I do not agree with the examples quoted, although MLK day is borderline IMO.

They all have NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE. Juneteenth was a local occurrence and appears to have significance primarily to a small subset of the nation.

Once again, as noted before, if we wanted to celebrate the ending of slavery, there are more appropriate dates than June 19, a day on which NO slaves were freed, no documents signed, no proclamations issued, and news of previous happenings was delivered to a very small number of slaves - probably less than .001% of slaves. On the next day, June 20th, there were still legal slaves in several US states and territories. Were there no other days and places where it was announced to slaves that they were free? Just June 19, 1865,in Galveston, Texas?

(06-20-2023 11:24 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  Did much of the country celebrate MLK’s birthday?

No. But a lot of people took advantage of the day off.

Quote:Or did they celebrate the workers of the nation?

Are you thinking of Labor day? That does celebrate the workers of the NATION.

Quote:What about St Paddy’s day - lots of celebrations across the country, should it be a federal holiday?

No. You are running a bit off topic here. I think national holidays should commenorate nationally important event events or people. St Paddy does not qualify.

Quote:I don’t think the frequency/breadth of existing celebrations makes sense as the way to define what is recognized as a federal holiday.

Neither do I.