On Juneteenth & History

When I first began teaching 8th grade Civics, the Summer reading assignment was an Annette Gordon Reed essay on Juneteenth and its history as a Texas-based celebration of freedom and Black joy.  That was followed with an essay written by historian W. Fitzhugh Brundage, who discussed the history of Confederate memorials.  Brundage’s work pointed out just how many of those monuments had been built either in the 1920s, at the start of the Great Migration and amidst the resurgence of the KKK, or in the 1950s, in the aftermath of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling.  The readings were followed by a writing prompt;  students had two options.  They could identify how the United States should memorialize and mark our history of slavery and consider how the nation should celebrate the end of formal slavery.  Or they could make a proposal about what - if anything - should be done with Confederate memorials.

President Biden’s declaration of a federal Juneteenth holiday in 2021 - a very welcome event to my mind - made for a teachable moment in class.  Now we read and learn about Juneteenth in our discussions of the Civil Rights struggle that commenced in Reconstruction and continues today.  I remind my students that there is no national monument or memorial to the end of slavery or, for the that matter, the lives of enslaved people.  We discuss that truth even as we consider the abundance of Confederate memorials that litter the nation.  I’ve watched as Juneteenth has become more and more mainstream - and, quite frankly - corporate.  I envision a time in our not-too-distant future when the same Republicans who expressed skepticism about Juneteenth embrace it with press releases and social media posts that imply they have always been on board with Civil Rights for Black Americans.  That is what has happened with MLK Day, where the Republicans who vigorously opposed making Martin Luther King’s birthday a holiday have come full circle and seemingly embrace King, even as they vote to gut the Voting Rights Act.

The blatant hypocrisy to be found in these GOP declarations highlights the path forward in my mind.  There is a continued need for a rigorous and mindful Civics education, one that truly wrestles with our history.  We must acknowledge that many of the good things about our nation’s story exist alongside the very worst sins of humanity.  Until we understand that, we cannot celebrate in good conscience.  I write this not to take away from the current celebrations of Juneteenth, which are a long-overdue, but to remind us that the story of our past must be told in full if we are to truly fulfill our potential as a nation and a people.