HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 06-01-2021; 4-b - Resolution Supporting Juneteenth 2021 1
ORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT
Meeting Date: June 1, 2021
Action Agenda
Item No. 4-b
SUBJECT: Resolution Supporting Juneteenth 2021
DEPARTMENT: Human Rights and Relations
ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT:
Resolution Renee Price, Chair, BOCC, (919) 245-
2130
Annette Moore, Human Rights and
Relations, (919) 245-2317
PURPOSE: To consider a resolution affirming the Board of Commissioners' support of previous
Board action to make Juneteenth a paid County holiday in this the inaugural year of observing
Juneteenth on June 19, 2021.
BACKGROUND: On June 19, 1865, more than two years after the signing of the emancipation
proclamation, Union Major General Gordon Granger went to Galveston, Texas to deliver the news
to enslaved people that they were free. The first Juneteenth in 1866 in Texas was celebrated in
Texas was a community event where people gathered together for prayer, food, song and dance.
Since then, Texas families have emigrated to other parts of the United States and the historic and
cultural tradition of Juneteenth has followed them. Today, Juneteenth is a holiday in at least 38
states. In 2007, the North Carolina enacted legislation that enables Juneteenth National Freedom
Day to become a state holiday when it or a substantially similar holiday is nationally recognized.
Last year Orange County and the Towns of Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough gave
recognition to Juneteenth as holiday.
Juneteenth, while a time of celebration, it is also a time of reflection. Ira Berlin, in his book, "The
Long Emancipation: The Demise of Slavery in the United States" finds slavery did not just happen
over the course of the Civil War but was "a near century process." Emancipation was not a gift
bestowed upon Black Americans by Lincoln or the Republican Party; it was something Black
Americans fought for from the time they came to this country enslaved more than 400 years ago
until today. In fighting for their freedom, Black Americans have shaped what it means to be a
citizen in this "imperfect" country we call home. Through judicial decisions and legislation, Black
Americans have redefined the words, "[We] the people."
This year there will be online and in person community celebrations of Juneteenth, June 18 — 20,
by the Towns of Carrboro and Chapel Hill, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools system, the
Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP, the Marion Cheek Jackson Center and others. Juneteenth will be
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celebrated with Black community and cultural events through arts performances, history exhibits,
music and activities. Staff recommends the community attend these events to learn more about
Juneteenth and the history of the Black community.
"The attached resolution regarding Juneteenth echoes many of the declarations and sentiments
expressed by the Black, Indigenous and People of Color Elected Officials group in their statement
commemorating Juneteenth, and thereby affirms the Board's support for this nationwide holiday.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact associated with this resolution.
SOCIAL JUSTICE IMPACT: The following Orange County Social Justice Goal is applicable to
this item:
• GOAL: FOSTER A COMMUNITY CULTURE THAT REJECTS OPPRESSION AND
INEQUALITY
The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race or color;
religious or philosophical beliefs; sex; gender or sexual orientation; national origin or ethnic
background; age military service; disability; or familial, residential, or economic status
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: There is no Orange County Environmental Responsibility Goal
associated with this item.
RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board approve the Resolution and
authorize the Chair to sign the Resolution.
RES-2021-035 3
ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Resolution Supporting Juneteenth 2021
WHEREAS, Juneteenth is a celebration of the date, June 19, 1865, when people who were
enslaved in Texas were informed that the US government had officially outlawed the brutal
practice of slavery, three years prior with the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation;
and
WHEREAS, the Emancipation Proclamation issued on January 1, 1863 declared that the
people who were enslaved in Confederate-controlled areas were officially free people (state
action was used to abolish slavery in areas controlled by Union forces with the exceptions of
Kentucky and Delaware where slavery was finally ended by the Thirteenth Amendment in
December 1865); and
WHEREAS, isolated from both Union and Confederate forces during the Civil War, Texas
had become a refuge for those who wished to continue the practice of holding human beings
as property; and
WHEREAS, since the capture of New Orleans in 1862, people who held human beings as
property in Mississippi, Louisiana and other points east had been migrating to Texas to
escape the Union Army's reach and more than 150,000 people held in bondage had been
moved to Texas; and the White people of Texas actively worked to ensure that the people
held in bondage, who should have been freed in 1863, did not hear of the freedom granted
by the Emancipation Proclamation; and
WHEREAS, although the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, there
were still a total of 250,000 people held as human chattel in Texas when U.S. Army General
Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and on June 19, 1865 — Juneteenth —
proclaimed the war had ended and so had the captivity of people who had been enslaved;
and
WHEREAS, the following is the text of the official recorded version of the order:
"The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the
Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of
personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the
connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired
labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages.
They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will
not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere."; and
WHEREAS, although news of emancipation came at different times during that Texas
summer and autumn 1865, African Americans in Texas started to celebrate the freedom of
enslaved persons on June 19 (Juneteenth) as their day of celebration; and
WHEREAS, beginning in 1866, they held parades, barbecues, and gave speeches in
remembrance of their liberation. The oldest of the surviving formerly enslaved people were
often given a place of honor and Black Texans initially used these gatherings to attempt to
locate family members from whom they had been separated and soon these events became
staging areas for family reunions and an opportunity to uplift each other as they moved
through hostile environments; and
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WHEREAS, by 1900, Juneteenth had unofficially become Texas Emancipation Day and was
sponsored by black churches and civic organizations; and
WHEREAS, with the migration of African Americans from Texas to the West Coast,
especially during World War II, Juneteenth grew in the emerging black communities of Los
Angeles, San Diego, and Oakland in California; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington;
and
WHEREAS, activists in the 1980s began to advocate for wider recognition of the Juneteenth
Holiday; and
WHEREAS, Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth a state holiday; and
WHEREAS, by June 2020, 47 states and the District of Columbia had established either full
or partial recognition of the holiday—only Hawaii, North Dakota, and South Dakota have not;
and
WHEREAS, Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of
slavery in the United States; and
WHEREAS, Juneteenth has been declared a paid holiday by the governing bodies of Orange
County, Town of Chapel Hill, the Town of Carrboro, the Town of Hillsborough, the Orange
County Schools District and the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools District; and
WHEREAS, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which was passed
by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the required 27 of the then 36 states on
December 6, 1865, and proclaimed on December 18, 1865, abolished slavery and
involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime; and
WHEREAS, we recognize that while the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th
amendment may have officially ended the legal practice of enslaving human beings in the
United States of America, one hundred and fifty six years later, there is still progress which
must be made to dismantle the insidious systems and practices which continue to harm Black
people and deny them access to the rights and resources to which they are entitled;
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the Orange County Board of
Commissioners,join with Black, Indigenous and People of Color Elected Officials in honoring
the perseverance and hope that inspired African Americans to celebrate freedom, to look for
lost relatives, and to thrive in a hostile and white supremacist environment, recognize
Juneteenth as an important date in American history.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we honor the legacy of Juneteenth by building a more
equitable future for our children, our children's children, and their children and we will
continue to advocate and work to that end.
This the 1St day of June, 2021.
Renee Price, Chair
Orange County Board of Commissioners