Juneteenth
Today in Massachusetts, for the first time, we are legally celebrating Juneteenth. For many people across the state as well as the nation, this is an unfamiliar holiday; however, for many others in our country, this is their long-awaited Independence Day of their ancestors. On the website of the National Museum of African American History and Culture , we learn, "On “Freedom’s Eve,” or the eve of January 1, 1863, the first Watch Night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. At the stroke of midnight, prayers were answered as all enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free. Union soldiers, many of whom were black, marched onto plantations and across cities in the south reading small copies of the Emancipation Proclamation spreading the news of freedom in Confederate States. Only through the Thirteent...