11 hours ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Could President Trump cancel Juneteenth as a federal holiday?
Thursday is Juneteenth, a holiday that celebrates the day the last American slaves officially learned they were free on June 19, 1865 — more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued.
It has also become, as my colleague Kevinisha Walker put it last year, a day to celebrate Black history, culture and unity.
Black communities have celebrated Juneteenth for more than 150 years. But it gained increased national prominence in the wake of the racial reckoning sparked by George Floyd's murder at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020.
That same year, many private companies announced that they would be giving employees the day off.
And in 2021, then-President Biden signed legislation into law to make Juneteenth, or June 19, a federal holiday. Biden's signature made Juneteenth the country's 12th federal holiday — and the first new one created since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established in 1983.
But there have been questions about whether President Trump — who has made attacking diversity, equity and inclusion efforts a cornerstone of his agenda — would try and rollback Juneteenth as a federal holiday.
Trump wouldn't have the power to do that on his own, according to Loyola Marymount University Law School professor Jessica Levinson.
'Federal holidays are created and abolished by Congress,' Levinson explained, adding that presidents can make recommendations and sign and veto bills, but they cannot unilaterally create or cancel laws.
There will be a number of Juneteenth events in Los Angeles Thursday and this weekend, including a Juneteenth Freedom Ride biking event in Leimert Park, an exhibit and panel discussion on reparations for descendants of enslaved African Americans at the California African American Museum and a celebration of Black women athletes at the Autry Museum, among others.
There will also be free admission to all national parks and forests.
Red-hued foods like watermelon, barbecue and red velvet cake are typically associated with Juneteenth.
There are, as my colleague Danielle Dorsey previously reported, differing theories on where this tradition stems from.
'Some believe that early celebrants simply worked with easily accessible and in-season ingredients that happened to be red… Others say that it honors the bloodshed and suffering of enslaved ancestors,' Dorsey wrote in 2023.
Black Lives Matter-LA co-founder Melina Abdullah said she and others from her organization would be 'restoring ourselves in the midst of the chaos that's swirling around in the world' at a Juneteenth celebration at BLM-LA's Center for Black Power in Leimert Park.
The event will be free to the public, but only open to Black people, Abdullah said.
Which brings us to a broader question: Should white people celebrate Juneteenth?
There are varied opinions on the matter, with some — like activist and writer Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman — saying that 'White people should celebrate this holiday in the way that centers Black Americans.'
Abdullah had a narrower view of the matter.
'This is not a day for white people to be crashing a Black party and eating our food,' Abdullah said.
If white people do want to celebrate or commemorate Juneteenth, they should do that by paying reparations, Abdullah said, suggesting they donate to Black organizations.
'We celebrate our freedom. It shouldn't be a time when we have to make everyone else comfortable with that,' Abdullah continued. 'This is a specific and particular African American holiday.'
On June 19, 1865, Union Army Major Gen. Gordon Granger entered Galveston, Texas, with General Order No. 3, a proclamation to alert the enslaved Black residents of the state that they were free under the provisions of the Emancipation Proclamation.
The day has been commemorated every year since 1866 as Juneteenth, a combination of the words June and nineteenth, as we mentioned above.
In 2021, The Times talked to Black Angelenos about their first Juneteenth and why it's a day they'll never forget.
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editorAndrew Campa, Sunday writerKarim Doumar, head of newsletters
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