Why Feb. 3 or Dec. 6 Should Replace Juneteenth as a Federal Holiday

Today is Juneteenth, which Democrats like to label as the great holiday for celebrating the end of slavery. But if we really want to celebrate the end of slavery and a monumental moment in the progress of implementing civil rights as the greatest Founders originally envisioned, we should celebrate Dec. 6 or Feb. 3, not June 19.

“You ask that which he found a piece of property and turned into a free American citizen to speak to you to-night on Abraham Lincoln,” former slave and great American orator Booker T. Washington began his brilliant 1909 speech to the Republican Club of New York City. Washington’s speech was complimentary of all Americans—indeed, somewhat unrealistically so in the case of war criminal Confederate leaders—but it and the circumstances of its delivery emphasize a few key points. Democrats want to forget that there were any white U.S. heroes of civil rights (and there were many), because those white heroes were almost none of them Democrats, while the villains were all Democrats. Democrats also want to forget that there were civil rights champions in every part of the country, North and South, as Washington noted—and that some men significantly evolved in their views over time. On the other hand, many conservatives who falsely glorify the Confederacy always forget to look at what the slaves themselves felt and hoped when, for the first time in their lives, the dawn of Freedom and civil rights rose glorious over their heads.

When Washington delivered that speech, his former owner’s descendent was sitting in the audience, the audience that rose from their seats to cheer the former slave. What a moving fact! We ought to celebrate the anniversary of the ratification of the 13th (Dec. 6, 1865) and 15th Amendments (Feb. 3, 1870) that made such a historic event possible, not Juneteenth, which was merely a step in implementing the great change. But, of course, that would not suit the Democrats’ purpose so well, since the president during the first Juneteenth was the racist Democrat Andrew Johnson, whereas the presidents responsible for both historic amendments were Republicans.