This week on Flashpoint, WCNC's Ben Thompson talks to Charlotte professors about the significance of Juneteenth.
Sunday marks Juneteenth, a federal holiday that marks the true end of slavery in the United States. On Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves of the Confederate states. But it took two-and-a-half years for Lincoln's proclamation to reach Texas and its quarter of a million slaves.
"It reminds us of the long-standing struggle for black freedom in the United States," Dr. Crystal Eddins, Assistant Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at UNC Charlotte, said.
Congress created the federal holiday in June 2021, following a year of civil unrest across the country.
"I think that it's hard to make an argument that it would have been a holiday without a lot of unrest," Dr. Aman Nadhiri, Associate Professor of English and Arabic at Johnson C. Smith University, said.
SEE THE FULL INTERVIEW SUNDAY AT 11 A.M. ON FLASHPOINT, ONLY ON WCNC CHARLOTTE.
