For social justice activist Glenn Harris, President Donald Trump’s statement on Juneteenth, arguing there are “too many nonworking holidays in America” costing the country “billions of dollars,” was no surprise.
Harris said the comments coming on the federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States were consistent with Trump’s most recent policies and practices working against people of color.
“In many ways it’s just a continuation of this administration’s attempt to erase the civil rights, free speech and literally the history of Black and brown people,” said Harris, who is president of Race Forward.
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has sought to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the federal government, corporate America and college campuses. The administration has also dismissed high-ranking minorities from the military, removed government webpages celebrating the historic achievements of people of color and accused the National Museum of African American History and Culture of being influenced by “divisive, race-centered ideology.”
Trump’s attacks on DEI led some groups to scale back or cancel Juneteenth events this year.
How did Juneteenth become a federal holiday?
Juneteenth marks the day Union Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger went to Galveston, Texas, to tell slaves they were free in 1865. This came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.
In 2021, former President Joe Biden signed legislation passed by Congress to designate June 19, or Juneteenth National Independence Day, as a US federal holiday.
The bill came one year after the nation faced a racial reckoning sparked by the murder of George Floyd.
It was the first federal holiday to receive approval since Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which was established in 1983.
Civil rights activist Opal Lee spent years lobbying for Juneteenth to receive national recognition, including leading a walk from Texas to Washington, DC, and starting a petition which garnered millions of signatures.
Lee has been nicknamed the “Grandmother of Juneteenth.”
Jeremy Paul, a constitutional law professor at Northeastern University, said making Juneteenth a federal holiday gave it fresh significance to the US.
“It changes the culture of the country when we decide that this is something that we either want to celebrate or commemorate,” Paul said.
Harris shared those sentiments, saying Juneteenth represents joy for Black Americans. But Harris said he’s concerned Trump’s comments on the holiday are only creating more division.
“It’s the nation naming its values, and I think in that moment people find hope, find inspiration, lean into possibility,” Harris said. “But sadly for some people they find fear. They are worried about losing power rather than imagining that collectively we as a nation are more powerful when we see and hear each other and learn from each other about what it means to be free.”
Trump himself once supported making Juneteenth a holiday.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, Trump rolled out a plan to appeal to Black voters, including a pledge to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. He also took credit for making Juneteenth “very famous,” saying during his first term, “nobody had ever heard of it.”
Can Trump undo legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday?
Despite Trump’s decision not to recognize or honor Juneteenth this year, it will remain a federal holiday, experts said, because just like it required Congressional approval to make it a holiday, Congress would have to also vote to rescind it.
In 2021, the bill passed the House 415-14 after the Senate unanimously passed the legislation.
“He lacks the legal authority” to cancel the holiday, Paul said.
Still, some experts said it was no coincidence Trump complained about the number of federal holidays on the day celebrating Black liberation.
Paul said he believes it was an appeal to Trump’s base.
“It’s unlikely that the fact that he chose to make the statement on Juneteenth was accidental,” Paul said. “I think he’s trying to send a message to the people who wish that Juneteenth had never been made a holiday, who are unhappy with the growing multicultural nature of our society … that he sees them and they have a place in America too. It’s sad but that’s where he is.”
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