Juneteenth Highlights Black Americans' Ongoing Struggle for Educational Freedom

Juneteenth, observed annually on June 19, commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, finally learned of their emancipation, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. The holiday, declared a federal holiday by the Biden administration in 2021, serves as a reminder of the end of legal slavery in the United States but also underscores the complex and ongoing struggle for educational equality for Black Americans.

The abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass, born into slavery in Maryland in 1818, poignantly illustrated the link between literacy and freedom. In his 1845 autobiography, Douglass described how his enslaver, Mrs. Auld, began teaching him to read as a child, only for her husband to forbid it. Mr. Auld warned that teaching a slave to read was "unlawful, as well as unsafe," stating, "If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master." This incident highlighted the belief that education empowered enslaved people and threatened the institution of slavery.

Historically, the fight for Black education faced severe legal obstacles. Following the Stono slave rebellion in South Carolina in 1739, the state passed an anti-literacy law in 1740, banning slaves from learning to read. Most Southern states enacted similar laws between 1740 and 1834, targeting both enslaved and free Black people. Despite these prohibitions, thousands of enslaved individuals learned to read and write, viewing literacy as a path to liberation.

After the Civil War, newly freedpeople prioritized education. They gathered in churches, homes, cellars, and even under shade trees to learn reading, writing, and basic job skills like understanding labor contracts. Many teachers were self-taught local Black individuals. The first African Free School for Black children had been established in New York City in 1787, starting with 40 students whose parents were often formerly enslaved, and by 1824, six additional such schools were created with public funding.

Juneteenth is a complex story of resilience and faith among formerly enslaved people, as well as a reminder of white supremacists' resistance to their liberation. The holiday emphasizes that true freedom must include the right to an education. Following emancipation, approximately 4 million freedpeople faced the challenge of being welcomed as equals, and they relentlessly sought to establish themselves as free citizens, with education as a primary goal.