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As Juneteenth is celebrated across the US, Obama's presidential center opens in Chicago

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DALLAS (AP) — As people gathered across the U.S. to celebrate Juneteenth
on Friday, former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle
Obama welcomed the first visitors to his presidential center. 

Located on a sprawling campus on Chicago’s South Side, the center
honoring the nation’s first Black president has been designed to inspire
people to make the change they want to see in their own communities.
It’s the kind of contemplation that also comes as Americans gather for
Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S. 

The holiday marks June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston,
Texas, at the end of the Civil War with an order declaring the state’s
enslaved people to be free with “absolute equality.” By then, 2 1/2
years had passed since the Emancipation Proclamation declared the
freedom of enslaved people in the South. 

“Juneteenth represents not just a commemoration of the end of slavery
but it’s also part of the ongoing struggle for absolute equality and
that ideal in American life,” said W. Caleb McDaniel, a Rice University
professor and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Sweet Taste of
Liberty.” 

Obama’s presidential center in Chicago
The grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center includes days of
events following Thursday’s star-studded dedication ceremony. In
addition to greeting visitors Friday as the center opened to the public
for the first time, the couple also read to children gathered there. 

Tyrone Sturgis, 62, said it had been a beautiful experience to see all
of the people from different walks of life explore the new presidential
center on Friday. 

“For this center to open on Juneteenth, on the South Side of Chicago,
it’s extraordinary, it’s awesome,” he said. 

The center’s public opening arrives as a symbolic convergence of legacy
and liberation. The nation is deeply divided politically and grappling
with renewed questions about the arc of racial progress as the Supreme
Court hollowed out the Voting Rights Act, endangering Black political
representation in Congress. 

The nearly 20-acre (8-hectare) campus includes a museum featuring a
life-sized replica of the Oval Office, a garden designed by Michelle
Obama complete with lettuce and strawberry plants, a professional-grade
basketball court, a picnic area with grills and a new branch of the
Chicago Public Library. Visitors can experience high-tech and hands-on
exhibits spanning the campaigns, key moments of Obama’s presidency and
life at the White House. 

The spaces are designed to bring people together on a campus expected to
draw as many as 1 million visitors annually, but the center also aims to
encourage personal reflection. Louise Bernard, the museum’s director,
has said they’re “inviting people to bring change home, however change
may be defined, both small or large.” 

The history of Juneteenth
This is the fifth year since Juneteenth was designated as a federal
holiday by former President Joe Biden, who served as Obama’s vice
president. But the celebrations, which began in Texas and then spread
across the country, have a rich and long history in Black America, with
the day often spent gathering for picnics and cookouts. 

The holiday — a combination of “June” and “nineteenth” — marks the day
when U.S. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in the Texas
port city with the declaration of freedom in General Order No. 3. 

As the third year of the Civil War neared, President Abraham Lincoln had
issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring the freedom of “all
persons held as slaves” in the still rebellious states of the
Confederacy. Though, for many, it did not mean immediate freedom but a
promise of liberation, to be secured with a Union victory. 

“It really required the force of arms and the success of U.S. armies to
enforce the Emancipation Proclamation,” McDaniel said. 

About six months after Granger’s arrival in Galveston, the 13th
Amendment abolishing slavery nationwide was ratified. 

Celebrations across the nation this year
Juneteenth’s birthplace was celebrated with a daylong gathering at a
Galveston park with music and fireworks, a worship service in a historic
Black church and a parade that included brass bands and brought out
families who braved temperatures in the 80s. Those in attendance were
invited to join a community picnic after the parade ended. 

In nearby Houston there was a lineup of musical artists and a domino
tournament at Emancipation Park, established in 1872 by a group of
formerly enslaved men. 

Hundreds of other cities across the U.S. announced events over the long
weekend, including a parade in Atlanta, a bike ride in Los Angeles and a
festival on Martha’s Vineyard. People also gathered for community
projects to mark the day, including a group of schoolchildren in
Vermont. 

Several cities across the U.S. hosted walks named for Opal Lee, the
Texas woman who pushed for years to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.
Participants walked 2 1/2 miles to symbolize the 2 1/2 years it took for
the Emancipation Proclamation to be enforced in Texas. Lee, known as the
“grandmother of Juneteenth,” turns 100 this year. 

Reflecting on a continuing struggle
Black Texans embraced the date of Granger’s arrival as one to celebrate,
even as the Ku Klux Klan was established in Texas by 1868. By the 1880s,
“it was difficult to find a significant community in Texas where it
wasn’t being marked by African Americans,” McDaniel said. 

“They made it a community celebration, they made it a celebration of not
only freedom but also a demonstration of community empowerment and
institution-building,” he added. 

Corey D.B. Walker, dean of Wake Forest University’s divinity school,
said the holiday offers a way to recognize the nation’s “complex
history” and what it means to be a U.S. citizen, especially during
efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to undermine the
retelling of Black history. 

“I think it really reminds people the importance of understanding a
fuller, more robust portrait of our nation’s history and the many
contributions of many individuals who have contributed to America’s
experiment with democracy,” Walker said. 

https://ktla.com/news/ap-us-news/ap-as-juneteenth-is-celebrated-across-th
e-us-obamas-presidential-center-opens-in-chicago/ 

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