Updated June 19, 2025 at 3:36 PM EDT

On June 19, 1865, union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation that had been issued some two and a half years earlier.

More than 150 years later, President Joe Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday.

"For those who are descended from people who were enslaved, it's a day to recall the fortitude and the perseverance of the ancestors," author Isabel Wilkerson told NPR.

While many workplaces are closed, some Juneteenth celebrations have been scaled back this year due to mounting resistance to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Morning Edition's Michel Martin spoke with Wilkerson, author of Caste and The Warmth of Other Suns, about the history and significance of Juneteenth — particularly this year.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Interview Highlights

Michel Martin: So I'm going to read from an essay you wrote that was published Monday in The New York Times. You wrote: "For generations, learning history meant memorizing dates and battles and military generals; laws and edicts; Supreme Court rulings. History was at a remove from regular people and everyday life." Okay. Duly noted. But June 19, 1865, is an actual day where something happened. So what do you think? What does this day signify to you?

Isabel Wilkerson: Well, it's a day that asks us to contemplate exactly what slavery was. So many of us thought of it as a sad, dark chapter in our country's history when it was, in fact, the foundation of our country's social, political and economic order. I don't think we think of it as the foundation and infrastructure of our country and what we've inherited. I think that people may not recognize the significance of slavery in the building of a country. And let me just emphasize how long slavery lasted to begin with…Slavery on this soil predated the country itself. It lasted for 246 years. I don't think a lot of us think of it in that way. That means it lasted for 12 generations. And how many greats do we have to add the word grandparent to begin to conceive of how long slavery lasted in this country?

Martin: Well, that does really put it into context. Does it matter that it's a federal holiday now, in your view?

Wilkerson: I think of it as a day and a moment. It's interesting that it also comes close to the country's celebration of itself on July 4. They're kind of paired at this point now. And for some people, this could be viewed as the new beginning for an entire group of people who have been held in captivity for so long that this became Independence Day for them as well. I think that it's important for all of us. For those who are descended from people who were enslaved, it's a day to recall the fortitude and the perseverance of the ancestors. I think for the rest of the country, for all Americans, it's a time to commemorate the role of enslaved people, the central role of slavery in the building of this country and to recognize that the country was built by people who were not able to really benefit from their hard labors. You think about how, financially, slavery was akin to the tech stocks of the 17th century as a way to get rich quick in that era. It was the economic infrastructure upon which the country was built. Legally it was built into the fabric of the nation's laws. Socially and politically, it established who could do what in this country, who could own property or who could be property based upon what they look like or what they were perceived to be. It established the racial hierarchy that survives to this day and that is, in some ways, the underpinnings of the many divisions and ruptures that we're seeing today. So I think that this is a time that allows us to see the significance of something that we otherwise would not be thinking about, but that is central to what the country became.

Martin: For people of African descent, victory over this demeaning life condition is, of course, something to celebrate. But what about everybody else? We're in a moment where there is a movement to not discuss aspects of American history that are deemed to make certain people feel bad. And this idea has taken hold in certain school districts, for example, around the country. A large number of them, in fact, have eliminated things from curriculum that are deemed to make people feel bad. And I wonder what you would think about that. How would you answer that?

Wilkerson: Well, I would say that's all the more reason to talk about this, because the building of the country cannot be extricated from slavery. And enslaved people are the ones who cleared the land and built the infrastructure of what would become the United States. They're the ones that built the wall in Lower Manhattan, from which Wall Street takes its name. They built the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. They built the White House. And of course, they planted and harvested the cotton, the rice, tobacco and sugar cane that would make this the wealthiest nation on the planet while they themselves were being paid nothing for 12 generations. And also on top of that, while their hard labors helped to build the country's wealth, they themselves were prohibited from learning to read or write, or routinely were forcibly sold away from their children and parents and experienced really unspeakable human rights abuses that would have been in violation of the Geneva Conventions had there been one at the time. So this is a day to recognize and to extend gratitude to 12 generations of people who gave so much to this country and received so little for their hard labors.

Martin: I think it is very noteworthy that the Pentagon has been at the forefront of scaling back, eliminating what they considered to be identity-based celebrations — like they forbid celebrations of Black History Month and other identity-recognizing events. But this is a situation where you could argue that the Army is at the forefront of the celebration. The Army arrived to enforce this federal law, and this has become part of our story, too. I wonder how you think about that. Is there a way that people could embrace this as a victory as opposed to a source of shame?

Wilkerson: That is such a central point that you're making. This is not black history. This is American history. All of the actors and the benefactors and the architects of this were participants in what is American history. It's hard to imagine what the country would be had there been a different timeline. This is a timeline that we're on, and this is what happened. And it is hard to tell the history of this country without it.

Reena Advani edited the audio for this story.

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