Today is Juneteenth, a federal holiday. It holds a special place in Black culture, especially in former slave states. It's a celebration of that culture. But beyond that, I think it's something Americans should be proud to celebrate and remember. On Juneteenth, we chose progress.
The fight to end chattel slavery in the US was a violent and costly affair. Emancipation required a sea change in social, cultural, and economic practices, many of which had persisted (in some form) for millennia. In America, the abolition movement took over a century to gain popular traction. Ultimately, we took a principled stance, and freedom prevailed.
Most of us learned about the end of the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed, and the Confederacy was snuffed out. Eventually we ratified 13th Amendment, which officially outlawed slavery (for non-criminals). A couple more Amendments, and Johnson and the Reconstruction. Something about Jim Crow...
Anyway, nobody ever told me about General Order No. 3.
Putting emancipation into practice took years of Union soldiers marching through the South to physically enforce the Proclamation. General Order No. 3 was the final decree issued in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 that finalized that enforcement process.
The 13th Amendment wouldn't be ratified for another six months. So, from a certain perspective, selecting a date around the end of a years-long process of implementing the law might seem sort of anticlimactic. Only a tiny fraction of the overall slave population was actually freed that day, and other hurdles still existed.
But consider the cultural implications of that final cohort being released from their chains. That was the day when all Black persons were free from a barbaric institution that had plagued them for generations.
Not to say there aren't still plenty of institutions plaguing Black Americans. But, I digress.
My point is that it's difficult to imagine a more triumphant moment. The event was biblical, almost literally so for the enslaved population and their descendants. If not a definitive finish line, it represented at least a major checkpoint for one of the largest and most enduring movements in human history.
Any date could suffice, and in fact plenty of different celebrations still happen throughout the year. June 19 might not matter so much. But Juneteenth absolutely matters.
Human progress is worth celebrating.