What You Need to Know about Juneteenth, Celebration of Black Americans Freedom from Slavery

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This Friday is Juneteenth, the United States' oldest known celebration of the end of slavery. Although celebrated by African Americans for generations, it was in 2021 when then President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, granting every federal employee a day off annually on June 19 to commemorate the day Black slaves learned they had been freed. 

The Birmingham Public Library will join City of Birmingham employees in having the holiday off this Friday, June 19. Some BPL locations are hosting programs this week celebrating Juneteenth.

From 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, June 17, patrons at West End Branch will make Juneteenth bracelets using beads. On Thursday, June 18, starting at 10 a.m., Inglenook Branch Library is hosting a Juneteenth program in which patrons can also make Juneteenth bracelets. Come early a supplies are limited.   

What is Juneteenth?

Juneteenth stands for June 19, 1865, the day enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, discovered President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved African Americans in rebel states 2½ years earlier. Juneteeth is also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day. 

Although Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation went into effect Jan. 1, 1863, his executive order did not free all of the 4 million slaves in the U.S. - only those in states that had surrendered to Union forces. 

The Emancipation Proclamation had no teeth in much of the U.S. as it was signed at the midpoint of the U.S. Civil War. General Gordon Granger and his Union soldiers did not arrive with news that all enslaved people had been freed by executive order until June 1865, two months after President Lincoln had been assassinated.  The American Civil War officially ended on June 2, 1865. 


Click here for a listing of Juneteenth events happening this week in Birmingham, the birthplace of the civil rights movement.

Pamela Gordon and Lori Giles from North Birmingham Regional Library will attend the Juneteenth Performing Arts Community Celebration, "Dashikis and Denim,"  on Friday, June 19, 4 p.m. - 7 p.m., at the Pearl Center, 1025 4th Ave. West in Birmingham.  They will have a  library table with Juneteenth crafts, and Pamela will share an African American heritage story.

That event is sponsored by the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Omicron Omega Chapter.  

Want to learn more about Juneteenth? Our libraries are here to help. 

Written by Roy L. Williams, Public Relations Specialist- Birmingham Public Library
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