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Juneteenth Proclamation Jubilation

In 2021, Juneteenth became the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day forty years prior. Students will learn about its origin and create a replica of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

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  • Paper

Steps

  • Step 1

    On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation to end slavery. Texas, however, did not comply with the order. Some blame the time lapse on poor communication, but others believe that slave-owners purposely withheld the information. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Texas to proclaim the news that slavery had been abolished and all enslaved African Americans were now free. Juneteenth (short for "June nineteenth") became a state holiday in Texas in 1980, and many states followed suit. In June of 2021 President Biden declared Juneteenth a Federal holiday.

  • Step 2

    Have students learn about the Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln's relationships with abolitionists. How did it affect the Civil War? Why was Lincoln not considered an abolitionist? What was the nature of his relationship with Frederick Douglass?

  • Step 3

    Have students create a replica of parts of the Emancipation Proclamation. They can give paper an antique feel by painting it with a mixture of yellows and light brown watercolors. When it's dry they can write portions of the proclamation on it in cursive script with a fine line marker.

  • Step 4

    Have a discussion about this historic document and about the importance of liberty for all.

Standards

SS: Time, Continuity, and Change: Analyze the causes and consequences of past events and developments, and place these in the context of the institutions, values and beliefs of the period in which they took place. 

SS: Time, Continuity, and Change: Read, reconstruct, and interpret the past. Imagine the future. Place oneself in various times and spaces and reflect on change.

SS: People, Places, and Environments: Understand various perspectives and examine changes in relationships between peoples, places, and environments.

SS: Power, Authority, and Governance: Develop awareness of rights and responsibilities of people, in specific contexts.

Adaptations

Have students investigate Martin Luther King Jr.'s multiple appeals to President Kennedy in 1961 and 1962 to issue a second Emancipation Proclamation to outlaw segregation. How did this influence the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

Have students research how to celebrate Juneteenth. Suggestions by Black activists include treating it as a sort of Veterans Day or Memorial Day, having it become a day of service, or having a public reading of the Emancipation Proclamation or the 13th Amendment.