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Juneteenth
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====Decline of celebrations during the Jim Crow era==== In the early 20th century, economic and political forces led to a decline in Juneteenth celebrations. From 1890 to 1908, Texas and all former Confederate states passed new constitutions or amendments that effectively [[Disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era|disenfranchised Black people]], excluding them from the political process. White-dominated state legislatures passed [[Jim Crow laws]] imposing second-class status.<ref name=":2">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nFTlBHBFYvEC&pg=PA15 |title=Way Up North in Louisville: African American Migration in the Urban South, 1930β1970 |last=Adams |first=Luther |year=2010 |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |isbn=978-0807899434}}</ref> Gladys L. Knight writes the decline in celebration was in part because "upwardly mobile blacks ... were ashamed of their slave past and aspired to [[Cultural assimilation|assimilate]] into mainstream culture. Younger generations of blacks, becoming further removed from slavery were occupied with school ... and other pursuits." Others who migrated to the [[Northern United States]] could not take time off or simply dropped the celebration.{{sfn|Knight|2011|p=}} The [[Great Depression]] forced many Black people off farms and into the cities to find work, where they had difficulty taking the day off to celebrate. From 1936 to 1951, the [[Texas State Fair]] served as a destination for celebrating the holiday, contributing to its revival. In 1936, an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people joined the holiday's celebration in Dallas. In 1938, Governor of Texas [[James Burr V Allred|James Allred]] issued a proclamation stating in part:<ref name=":4">{{cite book |last=Wiggins |first=William H. Jr. |editor1-first=Francis Edward |editor1-last=Abernethy |editor2-first=Alan B. |editor2-last=Govenar |editor3-first=Patrick B. |editor3-last=Mullen |title=Juneteenth Texas |publisher=[[University of North Texas Press]] |location=Denton, Texas|pages=237β254 |chapter=Juneteenth: A Red Spot Day on the Texas Calendar |isbn=1574410180|date=1987}}</ref> {{Blockquote|text=Whereas, the Negroes in the State of Texas observe June 19 as the official day for the celebration of Emancipation from slavery; and Whereas, June 19, 1865, was the date when General [Gordon] Granger, who had command of the Military District of Texas, issued a proclamation notifying the Negroes of Texas that they were free; and Whereas, since that time, Texas Negroes have observed this day with suitable holiday ceremony, except during such years when the day comes on a Sunday; when the Governor of the State is asked to proclaim the following day as the holiday for State observance by Negroes; and Whereas, June 19, 1938, this year falls on Sunday; NOW, THEREFORE, I, JAMES V. ALLRED, Governor of the State of Texas, do set aside and proclaim the day of June 20, 1938, as the date for observance of EMANCIPATION DAY in Texas, and do urge all members of the Negro race in Texas to observe the day in a manner appropriate to its importance to them.|author=|title=|source=}} Seventy thousand people attended a "Juneteenth Jamboree" in 1951.<ref name=":4" /> From 1940 through 1970, in the second wave of the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]], more than five million Black people left Texas, Louisiana and other parts of the South for the North and the West Coast. As historian [[Isabel Wilkerson]] writes, "The people from Texas took Juneteenth Day to Los Angeles, [[Oakland]], [[Seattle]], and other places they went."<ref>{{cite book |first=Isabel |last=Wilkerson |authorlink=Isabel Wilkerson |title=The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y03WKII5m7QC |location=New York City |publisher=[[Random House]] |date=2010 |isbn=9780679604075}}</ref> In 1945, Juneteenth was introduced in San Francisco by a migrant from Texas, Wesley Johnson.<ref name=":7">{{cite journal|first=Emily|last=Blanck|title=Galveston on San Francisco Bay: Juneteenth in the Fillmore District, 1945β2016|journal=[[Western Historical Quarterly]]|publisher=[[Utah State University]]|location=Logan, Utah|volume=50|issue=2|date=March 2019|pages=85β112|doi=10.1093/whq/whz003}}</ref> During the 1950s and 1960s, the [[Civil Rights Movement]] focused the attention of African Americans on expanding freedom and integrating. As a result, observations of the holiday declined again, though it was still celebrated in Texas.<ref name=":5" />{{sfn|Wilson|2006|p=239}} <gallery widths="200px" heights="160px"> File:Emancipation Day Celebration band, June 19, 1900.png|Band performing in Texas for Emancipation Day, 1900 File:Emancipation Day celebration - 1900-06-19.jpg|Celebration of Emancipation Day in 1900, Texas File:Emancipation Day in Richmond, Virginia, 1905.jpg|Emancipation Day celebration in [[Richmond, Virginia]], 1905 </gallery>
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