Juneteenth - what it means and why we celebrate it

--Guest submission by Leah Witte--

Juneteenth is celebrated annually on June 19 to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. The holiday's name refers to June 19, 1865, the day when Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the American Civil War. Juneteenth was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, when the 117th U.S. Congress enacted and President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. Juneteenth became the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was adopted in 1983. This new federal

holiday honors Black workers' right to fair wages, dignity and respect - in the workplace and everywhere else.

Early Juneteenth celebrations date back to 1866, initially involving church-centered community gatherings in Texas. As the celebration spread across the South among newly freed African-Americans and their descendants it began to include food festivals. As southern Black people participated in the Great Migration they brought the Juneteenth celebrations with them to the rest of the US. During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, Juneteenth celebrations evolved and became a part of the nonviolent determination to achieve civil rights.

This intersection of workers rights and civil rights is a part of our labor history. There are many contributions to the labor movement that can be drawn directly from Black Americans determined to continue to improve their lives, including their working conditions, which we celebrate during Juneteenth.

A. Philip Randolph was born in the late 1800s in Florida. He attended what is now known as Bethune-Cookman University. After graduating, Randolph moved to Harlem, where he became deeply involved in the fight for Black economic and social justice. In 1925, he met with Pullman porters—Black men working grueling hours on luxury trains for low pay under harsh conditions. These workers, employed by the Chicago-based Pullman Palace Car Company, were essential to the railway industry but were treated as disposable. Randolph spent the next decade organizing with them. In 1937, their persistence paid off: the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was officially recognized, becoming the first predominantly Black labor union in the United States.

Then as the nation headed into World War II, he expanded his focus. He understood that economic justice couldn’t be separated from the fight against racial discrimination. He led the campaign to end segregation in the defense industry and the military—an effort that forced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802, banning discriminatory hiring practices in defense jobs, and establishing the Fair Employment Practices Commission.

He became one of the first two Black vice presidents of the newly formed AFL-CIO and went on to establish the Negro American Labor Council (NALC), ensuring that the voices of Black workers remained central in the labor movement. In 1963, Randolph played a leading role in organizing the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Nearly 250,000 people gathered in the nation’s capital to demand civil rights and economic opportunity.

Dorothy Bolden is another Black Labor Unionist. She began doing domestic work alongside her mother at just nine years old. Bolden believed domestic workers deserved

respect, recognition, and fair treatment, just like anyone else in the labor force. In 1968, she founded the National Domestic Workers Union, organizing housekeepers, nannies, and other domestic laborers on a national scale—something that had never been done before. The union empowered workers to negotiate for better pay, benefits like vacation time, and basic dignity on the job. Bolden also made it a requirement for every member to register to vote, helping domestic workers find their voice not just at work, but in the political arena as well.