HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRO-2023-010-Proclamation recognizing Juneteeth 2023 (olwl
COMMISSIONERSORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF
PROCLAMATION RECOGNIZING JUNETEENTH 2023
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
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WHEREAS , isolated from both Union and Confederate forces during the Civil War , Texas G
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 j
i
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 4
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 PROCLAIMED , that we , the Orange County Board of
Commissioners , honor 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 , and 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 6th day of June , 2023 .
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