Did you know that New Jersey celebrates Juneteenth on a different day than the rest of the nation? In fact, every other state has designated June 19 as a holiday; only New Jersey holds it on the third Friday of June. Why?
Dance teacher Ms. N’Talia Wilson said, “Girl, Juneteenth is not just one day!”
Juneteenth festivities span the weekend. But June 19 won’t always fall on the end of the week. For this reason, according to nj.com, lawmakers wanted Juneteenth to fall on a Friday so that the holiday would “always [be] a three-day weekend, rather than a rolling date.”
This year, New Jersey’s Juneteenth will fall on June 21. According to Ms. Wilson, there will be a Juneteenth Festival and a Freedom Day Ride held at Mercer County Park on June 15.
South’s Black Student Union (BSU) is also holding an event at Mercer County Park, in collaboration with the African American Parent Support Group, on June 13, 7 p.m.
Juneteenth is a portmanteau of the words “June” and “nineteenth.” In 1865, Juneteenth was the day that Union soldiers rode into Galveston, Texas to announce the two-year-old news that enslaved African Americans were legally free by proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln.
The holiday was first celebrated in 1866, according to the database Gale In Context. Formerly enslaved people traveled to Texas to participate in the festivities, “which included fishing and horseback riding, baseball, automobile races, and rodeos.”
Celebrations declined in the early twentieth century, but the resurgence of civil rights activism in the 1950s and 1960s brought Juneteenth back into the public eye.
Today’s Juneteenth celebrations still resemble those from 1866. For Ava Edwards (‘24), president of Black Student Union, it features a barbecue with friends, family, and a joyful atmosphere.
“We decorate the house, listen to music, and cook food,” she said. “Sometimes my family will go to a Juneteenth park concert.”
The concerts feature music important to Black culture, from “old jazz all the way up to hip-hop and R&B,” said Ms. Wilson.
Juneteenth, even before President Joe Biden signed the holiday into law in 2021, was culturally significant to the countless people impacted. “I get to celebrate my heritage as an African American and spend time with my loved ones,” said Edwards.
Ms. Wilson said, “I’ve gained more pride. Being a Black woman in America, I can connect with my culture and understand the liberations that come along with it.”
Juneteenth is a time for descendants of freedmen to reflect and celebrate, but all people should feel welcome to respectfully join in the celebrations. Ms. Wilson expressed a wish for Juneteenth to become as widely celebrated as the Fourth of July.
“It’s about freedom, right? We all celebrate July 4th as the first declaration of freedom for America. But not all of us were free, even though African Americans were part of those troops to help America to break away from Britain,” she said. “I wish that more people knew that they could celebrate with us.”
