Juneteenth: A Day of Joy and Pain – and Now National Action

In just about any other year, Juneteenth, the holiday celebrating the day in 1865 that all enslaved black people learned they had been freed from bondage, would be marked by African American families across the nation with a cookout, a parade or a community festival.

But Juneteenth 2020 will be a day of protest Friday in many places. Celebrations held from coast to coast will include marches and demonstrations of civil disobedience.

And like the nationwide protests that followed the recent police-involved deaths of black men and women in Minnesota, Kentucky and Georgia, Juneteenth celebrations are likely to be remarkably more multiracial this year.