Juneteenth, Emancipation Day history in San Diego

President Biden has signed legislation establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery.

Juneteenth, observed on June 19, celebrates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, first learned that they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation 21⁄2 years earlier.

Beginning in 1980, Neighborhood House held a picnic in Southcrest Park to celebrate Juneteenth. But it wasn’t the first such celebration in the city.

In 1971 the Black Business Association sponsored a Juneteenth celebration at the urging of Sydney Cooper, owner of Cooper and Son’s Market on Imperial Avenue, who called it Black Independence Day. The Cooper family continues to support their father’s legacy with an annual Juneteenth celebration.

In North County, Juneteenth celebrations began popping up in the 1980s, with the North County chapter of the NAACP sponsoring one of the largest celebrations in Oceanside.

But going even further back, on June 13, 1888, a brief notice from the city’s common council appeared in The San Diego Union: “Levi Stansell and Frank Mitchell asked permission to sell liquor to-day only at Union park, on K street, where the colored citizens are to celebrate Emancipation Day. Granted.”

From The San Diego Union, Wednesday, June 19, 1991:

CUSTOM-MADE JUNETEENTH ENJOYED FOR UMPTEENTH YEAR BLACKS CELEBRATE END OF SLAVERY IN U.S.

By Noel Osment, Staff Writer

Juneteenth is an odd name for a relatively obscure holiday, but that’s never stopped Sidney Cooper.

“I’m 62 years old, and I’ve been celebrating Juneteenth for 62 years,” says Cooper, owner of a Southeast San Diego barbershop, fruit stand, pool hall and beauty shop. “I grew up in Oklahoma, and we always celebrated it.” Cooper is not alone. Today, African-American Juneteenth celebrants will gather for barbecue, gospel singing and speeches in the Cooper & Son’s parking lot.

On Friday, the Rev. George Walker Smith’s weekly Catfish Club lunch meeting will feature barbecue foods and a talk on Juneteenth by Dr. Jack Kimbrough, a dentist and a student of African-American history.

Last weekend, Juneteenth celebrations were held at the Oceanside Pier and at Gateway Center in Southeast San Diego.

The parties mark a quirk in U.S. history. On Jan. 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation granted freedom to all slaves living in territories “in rebellion against the United States.”

Of course, the South did not recognize President Lincoln’s power to free slaves in the 11 states that had seceded to form the Confederacy. In Southern territory held by U.S. troops, however, all slaves were freed. As more and more of the South fell to the North, more and more African-Americans won their independence.

But it wasn’t until June 19, 1865, that Union troops arrived in Galveston with the good news — and started the tradition of “Juneteenth.”