Juneteenth: A celebration of black liberation & day to remember “horrific system that was slavery”

Juneteenth is “much more complicated and much more complex than is traditionally presented,” increased recognition of the day “provides an opportunity to have a thorough remembrance of this horrific system that was slavery.”

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SOURCEDemocracy Now!

June 19 is Juneteenth, celebrating the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Black people in the United States learned they had been freed from bondage. As momentum grows to enshrine it as a national holiday, we speak with author and historian Gerald Horne, who says that while the story of Juneteenth is “much more complicated and much more complex than is traditionally presented,” increased recognition of the day “provides an opportunity to have a thorough remembrance of this horrific system that was slavery.”

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Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 900 stations in North America. She is the author of "Breaking the Sound Barrier," recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller.

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