From religious celebrations, to cookouts, to concerts: the evolution of Juneteenth

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Across the county, communities celebrated Juneteenth, or Freedom Day, on Wednesday, June 19.

Many Americans may remember from history class that slavery ended when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. That was in 1863, however, years later thousands of Black Americans remained enslaved in places still under Confederate control.

On June 16, 1865, Union troops arrived in the westernmost Confederate State of Texas. They landed in Galveston Bay with the news of freedom for the over 200 thousand enslaved people in the state. This day came to be known as Juneteenth.

Since then, the Black Community has marked the day with celebrations. Professor Bequita Pegram, PhD, who teaches history at Prairie View A&M University, says the way Juneteenth is celebrated has changed with the culture and times.

“Starting out when Juneteenth was celebrated, it was more of a spiritual and religious celebration. So you had prayer meetings, there was a lot of singing and celebration of freedom, and then you started to get into parades, family reunion type cookouts,” explained Pegram.

She says today, celebrations include concerts and festivals.

“You want to make sure that the significance of it isn’t lost in the cookouts and lost in the concerts,” added Pegram.

Pegram says festivals, like the one in Galveston, are very important. She added that visiting the place where those Union troops landed over 150 years ago is very emotional.

“You can only imagine the joy, the tears that were there [on June 19, 1865], but it’s now it’s very important to educate why that happened, what was the significance of it, so that we can remember and keep the story in that history and keep sharing that history for generations to come,” said Pegram.

Despite marking a second independence day for the country, the holiday remained unknown to many until recent years when it gained recognition as a federal holiday. This was in large part, thanks to an activist from Fort Worth named Opal Lee.

Known as “the Grandmother of Juneteenth,” Lee launched the effort to make the day a national holiday.

“She had tried through protest. She had tried through petition. She had tried through all the ways that she could try,” explained Pegram. “[Lee] was not getting the support that she felt like she needed. So she took it to the pavement, and every day she would walk 2.5 miles. To signify the two-and-a-half years that it took us in Texas to understand that we were free.”

Lee was 89 years old at the time. In 2021, her efforts paid off, with President Joe Biden signing the June 19 holiday into law.

Pegram says she hopes celebrating the holiday leads to Americans wanting to learn more about history.

“The more that we talk about it and the more that we fill in gaps of what happened. I think it’s important that we even if you don’t know, grab a documentary,” said Pegram. “I tell my students all the time, ‘Go to YouTube university, put in what you’re looking for, and I promise you, you will find a couple of videos that you can watch,’ and I think that’s a great starting point.”

Watch the full interview with Professor Bequita Pegram in the player above.