Juneteenth a day to unite Minnesotans

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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It is commonly thought that the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, ended slavery in the United States.

Not exactly. The presidential edict ended slavery in rebellious Confederate states. But Lincoln knew it would take a constitutional amendment to ban it throughout the country. It took until December 1865 for the required number of states to ratify the 13th Amendment.

Then in a final, cruel twist, hundreds of thousands of enslaved Black people in Texas continued to labor away for months, unaware of their new freedom. When Union troops advanced into Galveston, a Union general ensured that the news was spread.

An unofficial holiday in Black culture for many years, Juneteenth recently gained recognition as a federal holiday, and Minnesota became the 26th state to declare it a state holiday this year.

The designation is an important one — and long sought in this state. Minnesota can be proud that its soldiers fought and died on Civil War battlefields to help produce a united nation free of enslavement. But the state also has lagged in many ways, and still has some of the worst racial disparities and inequities in the country. Many of those long-simmering tensions were laid bare by the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer, which led to the U.S. Justice Department's finding that Minneapolis police routinely engaged in racist and abusive behavior.

That struggle continues today, to stamp out the remnants of systemic racism and fight back against those who stubbornly refuse to even acknowledge it exists.

State Senate President Bobby Joe Champion, who helped usher through the legislation, may have put it best when he spoke at a Thursday news conference celebrating the inaugural state holiday on Monday, noting that it was once said that "Great nations do not ignore their most painful moments. They face them. ... We are standing together to face the pain and suffering caused by the legacy of slavery, to reflect on the harm caused by segregation and Jim Crow and to commemorate the moment when the final enslaved Africans were freed in Texas. It's a moment to honor those who fought so hard to make the nation keep the promise that all men and women are created equal in the image of God."

Juneteenth should matter to all Minnesotans, he said, because "Black history is American history. It's our collective story that we share as nation." In addition to reflecting on the pain caused, he said, "We also are presented with an opportunity to contemplate the possibility of a shared future."

State Rep. Ruth Richardson, the House author, who also spoke at the news conference, noted the date, June 15, as the 103rd anniversary of a horrific event: the public lynching of three Black men in Duluth while a crowd of 10,000 watched. "I stand before you as part of that history," Richardson said. "I am the great-great-granddaughter of enslaved peoples; the great-granddaughter of a traditional Black midwife, the granddaughter of sharecroppers. And that history matters. ... [Juneteenth is] about community coming together; it's about making those connections." It is, she said, about knowing that "as far as we've come, we still have a long way to go."

It took more than 80 years, but in 2003 Duluth erected a public memorial to the men lynched that day. Piece by painful piece, we inch forward on a path toward healing past wounds. Passing legislation this year that banned discrimination based on traditional Black hairstyles is another piece. Official recognition of a deeply meaningful event for Black Americans is still another.

Not all of the work is painful. We have come far as a state. A holiday once celebrated mostly in Black neighborhoods has gone mainstream, with festivities across Minnesota. Juneteenth celebrations can be found from Marshall to Minneapolis, from Duluth to tiny St. Peter, from St. Paul to Apple Valley. Many will feature carnivals, traditional foods and entertainment, but also forums on financial literacy, economic justice, gun violence and other concerns of the Black community.

As we look to make further changes, it is worth remembering, that as with those enslaved persons in Texas, even changing policy is not enough.

"For a full two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, human beings lived in chattel slavery," St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter noted Thursday. It's a reminder, he said, that unless the word is spread to every corner, people remain unaware of new freedoms, new possibilities.

Minnesota will have much to celebrate this Juneteenth. And much to work on.