Federalizing Juneteenth

 I LEARNED ABOUT "Juneteenth" only late in life. I h ad heard the terms "Jubilation Day", Freedom Day", Emancipation Day", among others, and had correctly assumed that they were all informal "African-American terms associated with the end of slavery, whenever, however, wherever, and  assuming it ever truly ended. Its always been vague and confusing to me, and to all historians. Lincoln issued the "Emancipation Proclamation" at least twice, slaves were "freed" (freed to live lives of torment and rejection for decades), on many different days, and in may different places, and in many different ways, depending upon the state, locality , and moment in which they were freed, and by whom, in context with various military situations. My education began in earnest when I overheard a white southern redneck racist say to a friend of his one bright June day a couple of years back: "Hell, today's nigger day". I can't help but wonder whether the disgusting old racist managed to survive Biden signing into law the bipartisan legislation making June (nine)teenth a national holiday, our eleventh such and first new one since MLK Day broke through the race barrier thirty eight years ago. Under Trump, it never would have happened. With a Republican congressional majority, it never would have happened. With Biden and the Democrats enjoying narrow majorities in both houses, the Republicans, who no longer even remotely the party of Lincoln, were forced to posture and pretend , for appearances. Even better, we still have time to decide exactly what the new holiday should be and will be called, preferably "Emancipation Day", or "Freedom Day", rather than the distinctly goofy, frivolous sounding "Juneteenth". When I was a child, more than half a century ago, we celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of the "War Between the States",  America was fully segregated essentially by law, confederate flags proudly adorned most fraternity houses on southern university campuses, half the Democratic party consisted of far right racists, African-Americans appeared on television only as tokens portraying menial laborers, and there were no black college football players in the south, not one. Cassius Clay had spent his childhood in Louisville, Kentucky drinking at "colored only" water fountains, saving his justifiable hatred of white folks for expression in the boxing ring. tome, it seems amazing the progress I have witnessed, and even more amazing the progress we have not yet made, but should,  must, and it is to be hoped, someday shall. For that matter, as a child I would never have expected to see MLK become a national hero with his own holiday, "Jubilee Day" become a national holiday, and, most of all, to become a national holiday not only without noticeable conservative kicking and screaming, but, alas, with some measure of conservative acceptance, if feigned.