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Economic Times
4 days ago
- General
- Economic Times
Juneteenth 2025: Date, holiday status, history, meaning, and why it's celebrated
When is Juneteenth? What's the history behind Juneteenth? Live Events What's the holiday status of Juneteenth? How is Juneteenth celebrated? FAQs (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel In the United States, one of the longest-running celebrations among African Americans, Juneteenth marks the abolition of will be Juneteenth on Thursday, June 19, evolved into a festival of accomplishment, freedom, and bringing families and communities together through food and entertainment, religious and spiritual rituals, cultural storytelling, and pilgrimages to Galveston, Texas. These days, Juneteenth becomes a celebration of African American heritage and Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, during the American Civil War, declaring that over three million slaves in the Confederate states were now free. However, it would take more than two years for African Americans in Texas to learn of the news. Federal forces liberated all slaves and took control of Texas in 1865 when they arrived in in Texas had largely been unaffected by the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House in Virginia two months prior, until U.S. General Gordon Granger stood on Texas territory and read General Order No. 3: "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free."Slavery had persisted in Texas because there had been neither widespread combat nor a sizable presence of Union forces there. Since they saw it as a safe haven for slavery, many enslavers from outside the Lone Star State had relocated states began to secede from the Union (or the United States of America) shortly after Abraham Lincoln was elected defiance of Lincoln's strategy to limit slavery and states' rights, the Confederate States established the Confederate Army. Following the Confederate Army's assault on Fort Sumter, the Union organized an army of soldiers from twenty states. Beginning in 1861, the American Civil War lasted until 1865, when the Union Army emerged rights of African Americans who were enslaved in the Confederate States were federally recognized when President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Slave owners were not compensated for their lost property, slavery was not prohibited, and former slaves were not given citizenship. Both the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War sought to end slavery and preserve the Emancipation Proclamation, which President Abraham Lincoln signed during the Civil War, would officially legalize the rights of African Americans who were slaves in the Confederate those only; those that were not in war with the Union were not has been a federal holiday since 2021. It will be celebrated on Thursday, June 19, Texas declared Juneteenth a state holiday in 1980, several other states did the same. Because of activist Opal Lee's efforts to increase awareness, Juneteenth was declared a federal holiday in year on June 19, Juneteenth is a celebration honoring the abolition of slavery in the United of Galveston, Texas, did not hear that slavery had been outlawed until Union troops landed there on June 19, 1865. Right away, the former slaves started to rejoice with music, dance, feasting, and prayer. The first official Juneteenth festivities were held in Texas on June 19 of the following order to symbolize their newfound independence, celebrants wore new clothing during the initial observances, which also included prayer meetings and spiritual singing. Within a few years, the day became an annual event as African Americans in other states began to celebrate it as and religious services, speeches, educational activities, family get-togethers and picnics, and festivals with music, food, and dance are all common components of celebrations that have persisted throughout the United States into the twenty-first in several nations use the day to commemorate the abolition of slavery and to appreciate the accomplishments and culture of African Americans. It is also observed outside of the United commemorates the abolition of slavery in the United States, specifically June 19, 1865, when enslaved Texans were finally Since 2021, Juneteenth has been a federal holiday. In 2025, it will be observed on Thursday, June 19.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
How Arlington National Cemetery became a sacred site to honor our fallen military
It's one of the most solemn places in the United States, a sacred site that is the final resting place for the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Arlington National Cemetery is hallowed ground, a peaceful spot to remember those who died in the chaos of war and combat. Its 639 acres include the graves of more than 400,000 U.S. service members and their family members, from every war and conflict fought by Americans since the Revolutionary War. In that way and in many others, the history of Arlington National Cemetery is our history, telling our story in rows upon rows of white gravestones, monuments and memorials. Its grounds abide across the ages the same way its trees − some older than the United States, some memorializing the service and sacrifice of the people buried there − continue to stand sentinel. And it's where we pay special tribute as a nation each year on Memorial Day to our fallen troops. Memorial Day "is not about barbecues or sales or the opening of the swimming pool," said Allison Finkelstein, senior historian at Arlington National Cemetery. "Memorial Day is a solemn day, a day of mourning and remembrance," Finkelstein said. "We trace it to the Civil War, a conflict that tore our nation apart," killing more than 600,000 soldiers and affecting the United States in ways that continue to reverberate today. As we mark Memorial Day, here are some things to know about our national cemetery. More: The Army's ultimate memorial honor: Horse-drawn Caissons funerals to resume at Arlington First called Arlington Estate, the site was established by George Washington Parke Custis, the step-grandson of the first president. In 1931, Custis' daughter Mary married Robert E. Lee, then a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Custis left Arlington to Mary, and then to her oldest son. Lee, who would later lead the Confederate Army, was the executor of Custis' will, but never owned the property. The Lees abandoned the property as the Civil War broke out, and the U.S. Army seized the site to defend Washington, D.C. Three forts were built on the strategically important site, as was a refugee camp for freed and escaped enslaved people, Freedman's Village. The first person buried at what is now Arlington National Cemetery was not a soldier, a general, a war hero or even a veteran. It was George Washington Parke Custis' cousin Mary Randolph, who died in 1828. Randolph drew on her experience running a plantation when she wrote "The Virginia House-Wife," published in 1824 and considered the first American regional cookbook. Her recipes drew on African, Native American and European culinary traditions, and helped define what came to be known as Southern cuisine. Private William Christman was the first military member to be buried at Arlington, on May 13, 1864. Brigadier General Montgomery Meigs, the Army's Quartermaster General, ordered the site be used as a cemetery, as the existing national cemeteries in the area − Soldiers' Home (now called Soldiers' and Airmen's Home) and Alexandria National Cemeteries − were running out of space. Burial in a national cemetery was not initially seen as a means of honoring veterans and war dead. Instead, it was a way to ensure that service members whose families could not afford to bring them home for a funeral were given a proper burial. Decoration Day, May 30, 1868, was held at Arlington National Cemetery, which was just one of 74 national cemeteries established after the Civil War. Called "Decoration Day" because of the tradition of adorning gravesites with flowers, the observances at Arlington had become popular enough by 1873 that an amphitheater was built to accommodate ceremonies. By the late 19th century, the terms "Decoration Day" and "Memorial Day" were used interchangeably, though it wasn't until 1971 that Memorial Day was officially designated as the last Monday in May. Originally 200 acres, Arlington has changed and grown as our nation has. "You can explore every aspect of American history at Arlington," said Finkelstein, the cemetery historian. Changes that happened in the country have been reflected there, like desegregation. Like many cemeteries, and all national cemeteries at the time, Arlington was initially segregated by race. Section 27 had been the area for Black soldiers and free Black people, and more than 1,500 Black soldiers and 3,800 free Black people are buried there. Arlington remained segregated by race and by rank until 1948, when President Harry S. Truman desegregated the military. Initially, the only women buried at Arlington were widows and wives of servicemen. But in the late 19th century, Finkelstein explained, women who'd worked as nurses during the Civil War, even though not part of the Union or Confederate armies, lobbied for and won the right to be buried at Arlington. Contract nurses who'd served in the Spanish-American War, many of whom had died from disease, are also buried there. And, of course, said Finkelstein, "as time progressed and more women were given the opportunity to serve in the military, more of them gain the right to be buried in Arlington as well." "Any topic that someone is interested in, any community they come from, we have a story for you at Arlington," Finkelstein said. "We may surprise you with all we have to offer." There are astronauts from the failed Apollo I mission buried at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as three from the Space Shuttle Columbia. Two U.S. Presidents — John F. Kennedy and William Taft — are buried at Arlington. Robert F. Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., Edward (Ted) Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis are buried there as well. Robert Todd Lincoln, the oldest son of President Abraham Lincoln, is buried there, though President Lincoln is buried in Springfield, Illinois. Secretaries of State, including Colin Powell, John Dulles, Alexander Haig and George Marshall are interred at Arlington. Child star Jackie Cooper Jr. (Navy), actors Charles During (Army), Lee Marvin (Marines), Audie Murphy (Army), Maureen O'Hara (whose husband was an Air Force general), and Arctic explorer Robert Byrd (Navy) are also in Arlington. Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers (Army), early baseball pioneer Abner Doubleday (Army), boxer Joe Louis Barrow (Army) and several Supreme Court Justices are also among those buried at Arlington. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How Arlington National became the place to honor our fallen military
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
South's Biggest Antebellum Mansion Mysteriously Burns to Ground
The South's biggest surviving antebellum mansion was reduced to rubble by a massive fire which was still under investigation Friday. The Nottaway Plantation in White Castle, Louisiana, started burning around 2am on Thursday morning and was completely destroyed within hours despite the efforts of 40 firefighters. At 53,000 square feet it had been almost as big as the historic core of the White House and was used as an events venue. But the destruction of a mansion built in 1859 by a man who enslaved hundreds and made himself one of the richest men in the pre-Civil War south also sparked a heated debate online. The house was completed in 1859 for John Hampden Randolph, a Virginia-born man who had moved to Louisiana to profit from sugar grown by enslaved people. The business proved to be lucrative, and in 1855 he purchased over 1,000 acres of land on the Mississippi River to build 'Nottoway,' named for the Virginia county where he was born. The manor was built by 150 enslaved people, who baked each brick by hand and slept in slave quarters on the property and completed in 1859. They build a ballroom with 15-foot mirrors—and lived in squalor themselves. When the Civil War began, Hampden chose to financially back the Confederacy. All three of his sons fought for the Confederate Army, with his oldest son dying at Vicksburg in 1863. As Confederate defeat loomed, Hampden forced his slaves to move to Texas to avoid emancipation and keep making him money. When he returned after the Confederate surrender, 53 of them remained as low-paid laborers. After passing through a series of owners, the house and a surrounding 1,000 acres of the original larger plantation had become a resort and events venue and in 1980 it was put on the National Register of Historic Places. But the fire divided opinion—inevitably given its tarnished past. The president of Iberville Parish, where the home was located, posted a statement on the Facebook page saying the home was a 'a symbol of both the grandeur and the deep complexities of our region's past.' 'While its early history is undeniably tied to a time of great injustice, over the last several decades it evolved into a place of reflection, education, and dialogue,' said Chris Daigle. Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, a Republican, called the fire a 'gut punch.' 'Today my beloved Nottoway burned,' said Nicholas Schabert, who got engaged on the property and posted a tribute to the home on Facebook. 'To say I'm upset is an understatement.' Others argued that Nottoway left a dark stain on the history of Louisiana. 'Let's be real—Nottoway wasn't just some 'pretty old building,'' said Kenny Pahina. 'It was a plantation built off the backs of over 150 enslaved Black people who were owned, whipped, starved, raped, and worked to death so one family could live in luxury.' Pahina, who originally posted that he had 'no sympathy' for the property, said he 'refused to mourn a moment to human suffering.' 'This wasn't a fairy tale. The sugar industry was one of the most violent and deadly—people lost limbs, collapsed in the fields from exhaustion, or died slowly from infections while being treated like livestock," he added. 'Misery sank into those walls and floors,' agreed Erik Harry. 'This is the way it gets cleansed.' There are 375 other plantation sites, both publicly and privately owned, that are open to the public in 19 states. Some say that tourists that visit the sites for weddings, leisure, or parties turn it into 'Disneyland for adults' and sugarcoat the location's brutal past. One critic said: 'The rest of them need to burn down.'
Los Angeles Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Mark Twain is known for his sense of humor — but he also savored revenge
Mark Twain was America's first celebrity, a multiplatform entertainer loved and recognized all over the world. Fans from America to Europe to Australia bought his books and flocked to his one-man shows, and his potent doses of humor and hard truth enthralled both the highborn and the humble. After he died, his work lived on through his novels, and his influence has endured — this year's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, 'James' by Percival Everett, reverses the roles of the main characters in Twain's 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,' replacing the narration of the teenaged Huck with that of the slave Jim. Ron Chernow writes books about men of great ambition ranging from President Ulysses S. Grant to financier J.P. Morgan — his biography of Alexander Hamilton inspired the long-running Broadway musical — and is an expert chronicler of fame's highs and lows. But in taking on Twain's story, he signed on for a wild ride. Twain was both a brilliant writer who exposed America's hypocrisies with humor and wit, and an angry man who savored revenge, nursed grudges and blamed God for the blows fate rained down on his head. 'What a bottom of fury there is to your fun,' said Twain's friend, the novelist William Dean Howells. Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, Twain grew up in the slaveholding community of Hannibal, Mo., a town he would immortalize in 'Huckleberry Finn' and its prequel, 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.' The restless young man drifted from one job to another, then found his first calling as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi, an experience that would inform Twain's 'Life on the Mississippi' and other books. The river gave him his pen name (the phrase 'mark twain' indicated a safe water depth) and inflicted an early blow in the loss of his younger brother: encouraged by Twain, Henry Clemens signed on to a riverboat crew, then died when the boat exploded. Twain blamed himself. Twain's river idyll ended with the Civil War. Traffic dried up, and to escape conscription into the Confederate Army, Twain headed west with his brother Orion to the Nevada territory. He reveled in the rambunctious disorder of its mining towns, and as a young reporter there he uncorked his ebullient sense of humor. His literary career began in earnest when he moved to San Francisco, and helped by California writers such as Bret Harte, he went national when in 1865 a New York newspaper picked up his story 'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.' Twain moved east, and his career took off like a rocket. On a travel junket that inspired his first book, 'Innocents Abroad,' Twain saw a portrait of his future wife, Olivia 'Livy' Langdon. He fell for her image and contrived to meet her, and despite Twain's many eccentricities, her distinguished family accepted him. They married, and their life in Hartford, Conn., padded by Livy's family wealth, was a gracious dream, as the greatest of Twain's age — Grant, Robert Louis Stevenson, Helen Keller — sought his company. But tragedy struck again: their first child, a son, died at 18 months. The couple had three more children — daughters — and Livy's seemingly bottomless wealth supported him. She edited his manuscripts, ran his household and smoothed his rough edges. But the couple's Achilles' heel was their shared taste for luxury. They routinely lived beyond their means, running up bills even as Twain, a reckless investor with terrible business sense, gambled with both his publishing earnings and her inheritance. Throughout it all, he kept writing. The most enduring of Twain's books is 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,' published Stateside in 1885 when Twain was 49, the story of a runaway boy and an escaped slave who flee down the Mississippi River. A sequel to Twain's comic novel 'Tom Sawyer,' it penetrated the dark heart of Hannibal's savage treatment of Black people. Chernow writes that 'if Tom Sawyer offered a sunlit view of antebellum Hannibal, in 'Huck Finn' Twain delved into the shadows. As he dredged up memories anew, he now perceived a town embroiled in slavery.' 'Huck Finn' was the apotheosis of Twain's gift for truth-telling, as he exposed the sadistic oppression of Black people and made the slave Jim the hero. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the book has been banned for its use of a racial slur, but Chernow makes a strong case for the book's significance, buttressed by 'James' author Everett's summation: 'Anyone who wants to ban Huck Finn hasn't read it.' Twain's book sales failed to balance the household budget, and the family had to move to Europe to curtail expenses, the beginning of years of exile. Their departure from America was the end of a dream and the beginning of a nightmare. Twain's daughter Susy, who had remained in America, died of bacterial meningitis at age 24. Then Livy died. Her loss unleashed Twain's anger at pitiless fate, and his relationships with his two surviving daughters became increasingly estranged. 'Ah, this odious swindle, human life,' he swore, after his daughter Jean endured a major epileptic seizure. 'In most lives there arrives a mellowing, a lovely autumnal calm that overtakes even the stormiest personalities,' Chernow writes. 'In Twain's case, it was exactly the reverse: his emotions intensified, his indignation at injustice flared ever more hotly, his rage became almost rabid.' He continued to write and make appearances, drawing huge crowds, honing his image as a white-suited, cigar-chomping seer. But he also became self-indulgent and self-isolating, assisted by a poorly paid helper, Isabel Lyon, who took over most aspects of his life, an arrangement that was a prescription for disaster. His main companions were his 'angelfish,' prepubescent girls he arranged to keep company with (Chernow makes a strong case that there was no sexual abuse in this arrangement), but his retreat into a second childhood couldn't shield him from the final, catastrophic family loss that came shortly before his own death. The downward trajectory of Twain's life shadows his story in elements of Greek tragedy. Twain was a cauldron of creativity and often courage, speaking for Black equality and the suffrage movement, and against anti-Chinese harassment, colonialism and kings. But in his final years, he allowed grief and bitterness to swamp his life, and one wonders at how such a brilliant man could have such little understanding of himself. At 1,200 pages, this is not a book for the casual reader, and Chernow never quite gets to the core of the contradictions in Twain's conflicted soul. But he tells the whole story, in all its glory and sorrow. 'Mark Twain' is a masterful exploration of the magnificent highs and unutterable lows of an American literary genius. Twain himself once said that 'Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of a man — the biography of the man himself cannot be written.' But this one feels like the truth of one man's star-crossed life. Gwinn, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who lives in Seattle, writes about books and authors.
New York Post
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
World's most scandalous painting returns to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
She's back. After two years of traveling, 'Madame X' — the iconic 1884 portrait by John Singer Sargent — has returned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it's the star of a new exhibit ,'Sargent and Paris,' which runs through Aug. 3. The painting of a striking young woman in an alluring black dress has long been one of the Met's biggest attractions. Advertisement 6 After two years of traveling, 'Madame X' — the iconic 1884 portrait by John Singer Sargent — has returned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it's the star of a new exhibit ,'Sargent and Paris,' that opens Sunday and runs through Aug. 3. The Metropolitan Museum of Art 'People get upset when it's not on view,' said Stephanie L. Herdrich, curator of American painting and drawing at the Met. 'I've even seen people with [Madame X] tattooed on their bodies.' In its day, the painting wasn't nearly so highly regarded. Advertisement It was branded 'immodest,' 'indecent' and 'vulgar' when it debuted. One critic deemed it 'the worst, most ridiculous, and most insulting portrait of the year.' Another called it 'simply offensive in its insolent ugliness.' Cartoonists mocked it for months. The new exhibit examines the scandal surrounding the piece, which Sargent painted when he was 28 after spending a decade in the City of Light. The madame who posed for him, Virginie Amélie Gautreau (nee Avegno), was a 25-year-old socialite whose reputation was forever changed by associating with Sargent. Like Sargent, Amélie was American. She hailed from a wealthy French Creole family in New Orleans. After her father died in the Civil War — he was a major in the Confederate Army — her mother took 8-year-old Amélie to Paris, in hopes of finding her a rich husband. Advertisement With her distinctive looks and bold fashion sense, she became the toast of Paris. At 19, Amélie married Pierre Gautreau, a wealthy businessman 20 years her senior, and had a daughter, but that didn't stop her exhibitionism. 6 John Singer Sargent was 28 when he painted 'Madame X.' Corbis/VCG via Getty Images 'She was a professional beauty … what we would call an influencer today,' Herdrich said. 'She wore glamorous, often low-cut dresses, dyed her hair, rouged her ears.' The newspapers — in France and the US — reported where she shopped, where she got her hair done and how she achieved her artificial, lavender-tinged pallor. She attended parties and dinners accompanied by men who were not her husband, which set tongues wagging. Advertisement The only thing Amélie needed to cement her role as the most celebrated woman in France was a portrait, a really sensational one. Sargent was a rising star in the art world. He had arrived in Paris in 1874, and attracted attention for his captivating portraits. In 1881, he painted one of Amélie's rumored lovers, the gynecologist and notorious ladies' man Samuel Jean de Pozzi, in a louche scarlet silk robe. He and Amélie began planning in 1882, going through her wardrobe and picking out a form-fitting, strapless black dress with a deep sweetheart neckline. She would wear no jewelry, save for her wedding band and a diamond crescent in her hair, an allusion to Diana, goddess of the hunt. 6 The painting's model, Virginie Amélie Gautreau, was a glamorous gal about Paris. Sargent labored over the portrait. 'He had the feeling that he needed to outdo himself,' Herdrich said. He had hoped to finish it in time for the 1883 Paris Salon — the town's biggest art event — but it wasn't ready. Amélie quickly grew bored of the whole process. 'I am struggling with the unpaintable beauty and hopeless laziness of Mme. G,' Sargent complained to a friend. When he was finished in 1884, Amélie dubbed it 'a masterpiece.' Sargent submitted it to the 1884 Salon with the title 'Madame ***' — though everyone in Paris knew the subject's identity. Advertisement All of Paris went to the opening, and they were aghast. 'But she's not wearing a chemise [undergarment],' they shouted amid boos and jeers. Most shocking was that Amélie had posed with her shoulder strap falling off. Nevermind that the Salon boasted plenty of nudes: Those were all historical paintings, or nymphs and other fantastical creatures. 6 Cartoonists mocked the painting for months after its debut. The Metropolitan Museum of Art 6 The reception for the painting was so bad, Sargent had trouble getting commissions afterward. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Later that evening, Amélie's mother stormed into Sargent's studio and demanded that Sargent remove the painting from the Salon or her humiliated daughter would 'die of despair.' Sargent defended the work, saying he had painted her 'exactly as she was dressed.' But when the Salon was over, he installed the unsold portrait in his studio and repainted the strap upright. (That's how it's remained.) Advertisement Afterward, Sargent had trouble getting commissions. 'Women are afraid of him lest he should make them too eccentric looking,' wrote his friend Vernon Lee. He moved to London, and his portraits there — and in the U.S. — helped restore his reputation. Still, he would not show 'Madame ***' for another 20 years. Gautreau recovered and was back out on the town weeks later. 'She almost embraced the controversy,' Herdrich said. She went on to pose for more artists, separate from her husband and, eventually be consumed by her own vanity. Advertisement 6 The painting was branded as 'indecent.' The Metropolitan Museum of Art According to the book 'Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X' by Deborah David, a 50-something Amélie's had all the mirrors in her home removed after overhearing a woman say that her 'physical splendor had totally disappeared.' She stopped leaving the house and died in 1915 at the age of 56. The next year, Sargent sold her portrait to The Met, asking the museum to retitle it 'Madame X.' 'I suppose it's the best thing I've done,' he later wrote.
