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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRES-2021-035-Resolution Supporting Juneteenth 2021 / _ • / R ES - 2021 -035 ® ' �O1 � I 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 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 . &4q. ' ® 'ant ' , r �x fi Renee Price , Chair Orange County Board of Commissioners c art . , '