NO JUNETEENTH FOR ME!

MLK’s message was of unifying Americans. Juneteenth is the opposite. It separates out Americans of one color. As special. And no other color of Americans has any, much less two federal holidays.

The 12 Federal Holidays

· New Year’s Day: January 1

· Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Third Monday in January

· Inauguration Day: January 20 (observed every four years following a presidential election)

· Washington’s Birthday: Third Monday in February

· Memorial Day: Last Monday in May

· Juneteenth National Independence Day: June 19

· Independence Day: July 4

· Labor Day: First Monday in September

· Columbus Day: Second Monday in October

· Veterans Day: November 11

· Thanksgiving Day: Fourth Thursday in November

· Christmas Day: December 25

On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, two months after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, and announced to the city’s residents that all slaves in Texas were free by the Emancipation Proclamation.

Some slaves remained enchained in the border states of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri until the 13th Amendment’s ratification on Dec. 6 of that year, but ratification was a forgone conclusion.

The amendment had already passed both houses of Congress, and mourning over Lincoln’s assassination assured assent in three-fourths of loyal state legislatures. Thus, the Union’s recapture of Texas marked slavery’s practical extinction in America.

The anniversary has long been celebrated by some black Americans as “Emancipation Day,” “Jubilee,” or “Juneteenth.”