Juneteenth for kids: How to explain and celebrate this important holiday
Care.com has a great article on Juneteenth. This short article helps adults and children learn more about newly created and important holiday.
Talking to children about the Juneteenth holiday doesn’t have to be difficult. These activities and ideas for celebrating can help make the learning process engaging and fun.
Embracing histories that humanize marginalized voices and face the unflattering aspects of our country’s past is vital to create a more equitable society. Yet often, the history we accept affirms dominant perspectives and limits the perspectives of people of color. As parents and caregivers, we’re ideally situated to disrupt this by explaining Juneteenth for kids to understand.
Natalie J. Graham, director of The Institute of Black Intellectual Innovation and chair of African American Studies at California State University, Fullerton, says cultural holidays like Juneteenth provide an opportunity to reflect on the contributions of Black Americans and symbolize the complexity of being Black in America. “We have been both central to and invisible to the official political and social narrative of what it means to be American,” she says on the tendency to avoid the darker aspects of American history. However, that hasn’t stopped Black Americans and other marginalized groups from countering harmful narratives with those that affirm their humanity and joy.
Cultural holidays like Juneteenth provide an opportunity to reflect on the contributions of Black Americans and symbolize the complexity of being Black in America.
Talking to children about cultural holidays — for example, Juneteenth for kids — sounds hard. But it doesn’t have to be. Having these conversations holds newfound significance and is even more important as we celebrate Juneteenth this year at the federal level, for the first time. Read on for the history of Juneteenth and activities to make this learning process fun.
What is Juneteenth anyway?
“Juneteenth” commemorates the day — June 19th, 1865 — that 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, and informed the remaining 250,000 enslaved Americans that the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln granted them freedom. Although the popular story goes that the news took a full two and a half extra years to get to Texas after the executive order was signed in 1863, many organizations challenge this narrative today.
The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is one of those organizations. “Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control,” they write on a post addressing the historical legacy of Juneteenth. Directly put: The enslavers in the southern United States knew that enslaved Black people were free by decision of executive order. Still, they refused to acknowledge this information — and chose to withhold it — until Union troops liberated the enslaved people by force. And even then, the formerly enslaved would have to wait for the news from their former enslavers and were often forced to transition into sharecropping to make a living.
The first Juneteenth was observed in 1866, and through the years, Juneteenth has symbolized different things to different members of the Black community.
Juneteenth is a uniquely American holiday. It gained federal recognition in 2021 after decades of advocacy from Black activists and community leaders. Opal Lee, who is often called “the grandmother of Juneteenth,” labored tirelessly to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. Many non-Black Americans had not heard of Juneteenth until it was observed as a federal holiday. However, the holiday has deep roots in the southern United States and many have celebrated this day for generations. In 1980, Texas became the first to acknowledge June 19th as a state holiday. Because of this, it’s also often considered a regional/southern celebration. However, many states have followed suit in recent years.
Although Juneteenth doesn’t hold significance to all Black/African descended peoples (there are many cultural subgroups), the holiday is still important as a stepping stone to freedom for all African descendants and even non-Black people of color in the United States. People of all ethnic and racial backgrounds can observe this day.
While there are many names to describe this event, it’s clear that each of them celebrates the joy that accompanies finally being free from legal enslavement. Other names for Juneteenth include:
Freedom Day.
Emancipation Day.
Jubilee Day.
Liberation Day.
