What is "juneteenth"

n. (alternative case form of Juneteenth English)

Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day, is a holiday that commemorates the June 19, 1865 announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas, and more generally the emancipation of African-American slaves throughout the Confederate South. Celebrated on June 19, the term is a portmanteau of June and nineteenth and is recognized as a state holiday or special day of observance in most states.

The holiday is observed primarily in local celebrations. Traditions include public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, singing traditional songs such as " Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and " Lift Every Voice and Sing", and readings by noted African-American writers such as Ralph Ellison and Maya Angelou. Celebrations may include parades, rodeos, street fairs, cookouts, family reunions, park parties, historical reenactments, or Miss Juneteenth contests.

Juneteenth is Ralph Ellison's second novel, published posthumously in 1999 as a 368-page condensation of over 2000 pages written by him over a period of forty years. It was originally written without any real organization, and Ellison's longtime friend, biographer and critic John F. Callahan put the novel together, editing it in the way he thought Ellison would want it to be written.

Ellison claimed to be devastated when much of the original manuscript of Juneteenth was destroyed by a fire in 1967. However, the loss of the crucial, irrecoverable sections of his manuscript appears to have been something Ellison concocted after the fact to justify his lack of progress. Arnold Rampersad, in his 2007 biography of Ellison, points out that, following the fire, Ellison wrote to critic Nathan Scott of his relief that he still "fortunately had a full copy" of all his writing.

While there had been over 2,000 pages written by the time of his death, the novel was never finished by the author himself. A fuller version of the manuscript was published on February 2, 2010, as Three Days Before the Shooting.