The political analyst and former New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow shares his thoughts about our nation’s newest federal holiday, Juneteenth:

Last month I visited Emancipation Park in Houston, a park established in 1872 by the formerly enslaved as a space to celebrate Juneteenth, the day in 1865 that the news of emancipation was proclaimed in Galveston, Texas.

Ramon Manning, the board chair of the park’s conservancy, told me that his corporate sponsors had grown skittish about supporting Juneteenth-related activities and anything with words like “culture,” “heritage” or “Black History” – words nearly impossible to omit in this park.

This, for Manning, is a bit of a whiplash.

Four years ago, in the wake of the massive protests following the killing of George Floyd, and in a Senate riven by partisanship, the bill to make Juneteenth a national holiday passed unanimously.

A year before that, in the closing months of his reelection bid, Donald Trump himself had proposed making it a national holiday in his so-called Platinum Plan for Black America. In fact, in 2019, Trump’s statement commemorating Juneteenth ended by saying that on Juneteenth, “… we pay tribute to the indomitable spirit of African Americans.”

Now, the mood of the country has shifted. 

Pluralism and racial justice have been demoted in the zeitgeist, as Trump has returned to office on a mission to purge the government, and much of society, of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts. 

This has spurred an erasure of Black history and Black symbols in some quarters, a phenomenon that I call “The Great Blackout” – from an executive order condemning the direction of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, to the National Park Service removing – but being forced to restore – Harriet Tubman’s image and quote to a page about the Underground Railroad.

There are, unfortunately, countless examples.

That chill is having a dampening effect on the upcoming observation of Juneteenth, far beyond Emancipation Park, as multiple cities have cancelled Juneteenth celebrations altogether.

In this sad new reality, America’s youngest national holiday is now caught in the crossfire of America’s raging culture wars.

        
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Story produced by Robbyn McFadden. Editor: Chad Cardin.

    
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