Today is June 19th, a significant date for many Black American. The holiday in question is Juneteenth. For those who are unfamiliar with this event, Charlamagne sums it up in his caption: "Happy Juneteenth!!! On this date in 1865 the last slaves in Texas and the Confederate South we’re freed." Disregard the typo and you get the picture. Ludacris got it and hopped into the comments to type, "The Real Independence Day, " followed by the strong arm emoji.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkNR8anlfRW
Jadakiss got involved too, lending his talent to the celebration that took place in Denver.
https://twitter.com/_/status/1008295748386115585
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkH1rOdgo1M
Other celebs have taken to Twitter to show their enthusiasm for the celebration and to encourage their following to understand their history.
https://twitter.com/_/status/1009104883432034304
https://twitter.com/_/status/1009065652542427136
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https://twitter.com/_/status/1009089461953572872
I might seem like Juneteenth popped out of nowhere. In a way, it did. Although Black Americans have been celebrating June 19th for over a century, individual state governments only started acknowledging the date as a holiday in the 80s. In terms of pop culture, the current generation of youth isn't likely to have been exposed to Juneteenth at all. For this reason, its recent inclusion in TV shows like Atlanta and Black-ish were defining moments for the holiday. This might explain why some popular artists acknowledged the holiday last year. Chance the Rapper and Nicki Minaj sent out celebratory tweets for the occasion. They haven't done so this year, as of yet. Hopefully, it wasn't a matter of bandwagon hopping. Make sure to read up on the repercussions of the 13th Amendment or watch Ava Duvernay's 13th on Netflix to understand how this history still affects Americans today. On a lighter note, the musical number of the Black-ish episode we mentioned is available below.
https://twitter.com/_/status/1009091742497411072
