TV’s ‘black-ish’ makes an issue of ‘Juneteenth’

LOS ANGELES — If Juneteenth fails to ring a bell, the season debut episode of ABC’s “blackish” should fix that.

With animation, musical numbers and help from The Roots and Aloe Blacc, the sitcom delves into the holiday that marks June 19, 1865, the date on which a Union Army general ordered laggard Texas to put a stop to slavery in the months following the Civil War’s end.

Today’s episode uses the holiday as a pivot point to debate what America honors of its past and what it sidelines.

Series creator and executive producer Kenya Barris admits he initially brushed off a fellow “black-ish” writer’s suggestion that the show address Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day and first celebrated in 1866.

Then one of Barris’ six children schooled him on a historical figure that gets no lack of attention, the 15th-century Italian explorer Christopher Columbus.

“‘Dad, you know Columbus never set foot in North America?’” Barris recalled the preteen saying. “I said, ‘I think you’re mistaken, son.’ Then I decided to look it up and found he was absolutely right.”

Barris’ research turned up more, including accusations from Columbus’ contemporaries that he brutalized and enslaved people on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola and mistreated others he encountered on his expeditions to the new world.

“It made me start thinking, ‘Why can we celebrate this guy, but when someone says Juneteenth it’s a laughable thing?’ ” Barris said.

The “black-ish” episode is especially ambitious, starting with the animated segment in which The Roots and Blacc, who also guest stars as himself in the show, perform the song “I’m Just a Slave.”

Kelsey McNeal / Associated Press Miles Brown, left, and Marsai Martin in a scene from the season four premiere episode of “black-ish,” premiering today.

Mitch Haaseth/ABC / TNS Anthony Anderson in “black-ish.”