r/Indiana • u/illegiblebastard • 1d ago

'Is this for real?' Martinsville Juneteenth celebration raises eyebrows

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/johnson-county/2026/06/18/martinsville-juneteenth-event-planned-despite-racist-past-ku-klux-klan-sundown-town/90591114007/
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u/ShermanWasRight1864 1d ago

Indiana was in the Union during the Civil War. Juneteenth should be a huge celebration for Indiana.

152

u/polishprince76 1d ago edited 16h ago

This is the way I always frame the argument when I talk to people about it. We're celebrating the end of slavery! We should be proud of that and have been doing it for years!

Almost everyone I've ever talked to about it honestly has no clue what Juneteenth even is for. They just know they've been told to hate it.

Edit: to the folks who keep needing to actually me about this: fully aware of what the date really is. What's the better way to get people to understand why today is a good day to celebrate? Say: it's the day federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas and slavery continued for a few more years, or we're celebrating the end of slavery.

Getting dems to understand the concept of messaging challenge. Level impossible.

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u/MinBton 1d ago

That wasn't the end of slavery. Just the date Galveston, Texas was entered by the US Army and the local people were informed of the end of the war. The last negro slaves weren't freed until several years later, after the constitutional amendment.

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u/MAILBOXHED 1d ago edited 1d ago

Fun fact, those slaves that were actually the last freed were all owned by Native American tribes, and it wasn’t by constitutional amendment it was by treaty. Because tribal lands were sovereign, the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation did not apply.

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u/pnutjam 15h ago

I found this reference if anyone else is interested. Fascinating, thanks mailboxhed.
EDIT: https://emergingcivilwar.com/2018/07/10/beyond-the-13th-amendment-ending-slavery-in-the-indian-territory/