Black Joy—Not Corporate Acknowledgment—Is the Heart of Juneteenth
Companies and state governments are finally recognizing Emancipation Day as an official holiday, but black Americans have honored its significance all along.
In 2002 I was at the University of Iowa conducting research on the history of Emancipation Day celebrations in the state. I remember at one point being somewhat baffled by what Leslie Schwalm, the professor I was working with, had found: From 1865 to 1963, there were more than 200 Emancipation Day festivities in Iowa alone. I had always thought of the event as a Texas holiday.
While most enslaved people were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation put forth by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, those in Texas weren’t made
