Juneteenth is still a federal holiday, but not everyone deserves the day off | Opinion

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Millions of Americans will get Thursday, June 19, off work to observe Juneteenth.

Millions of Americans don't deserve it.

That's certainly the case for the lawmakers in Ohio and around the nation behind efforts to cripple civil rights, erase accurate, unvarnished history, and keep Americans afraid of Americans.

That's certainly the case for the university presidents and business leaders in Ohio and around the nation who surrendered their morality to national forces bent on making America less diverse and more unjust and exclusionary.

That's certainly the case for Americans in Ohio and around the nation who secretly or openly applaud as doors are slammed shut for those deserving of the same freedom they are afforded.

Cowardly decisions like the one Ohio State University made to close two campus offices focused on diversity, equity and inclusion will have consequences for real people. So will Ohio University's work to root out scholarships earmarked for minorities, women and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

There are sadly so many examples.

Opinion: I remember my first Juneteenth. It's more than a Black holiday.

Not everyone deserves to celebrate Juneteenth

I wish it were not the case, but these folks don't deserve to celebrate the events of June 19, 1865. 

They should have to work on Juneteenth or, better yet, be required to gift their day off to a soul forced to work who believes in liberty and justice for all.

These Americans don't get that Juneteenth – "June" and "nineteenth" – not only celebrates the Emancipation Proclamation but also the liberation of America.

They don't get that slavery held all of America in bondage, and that clinging to superiority and inequality is a bear trap that injures us all.

These Americans will get Juneteenth off, nevertheless.

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Why is Juneteenth celebrated?

There will be picnics, festivals and other jubilant events for the holiday. Those fighting in the name of oppression shouldn't go.

I can only hope they'll consider the meaning behind America's second Independence Day or Freedom Day, as it is called.

More than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln, the Union Army and Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and ordered enslaved Blacks be set free.

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Juneteenth has been commemorated in Texas, the last of the Confederate states to have Lincoln's order announced, since June 19, 1866.

The holiday gained prominence in 2020 after nationwide protests were sparked by the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black people and drew attention to ongoing racial inequalities.

President Joe Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021.

Banks, the U.S. Postal Service, schools and government offices will be closed for Juneteenth.  

Real freedom should be for us all. Juneteenth is a holiday for all Americans.

One day, all Americans will deserve the day off for it.

Amelia Robinson is the opinion and community engagement editor at the Columbus Dispatch, where this column originally appeared.