In addition to being Father’s Day, Sunday is also Juneteenth, an annual holiday celebrated every June 19 to commemorate the end of slavery in America. To celebrate both occasions, Google created a doodle that highlights black family and fatherhood while exploring the meaning of liberation and freedom.
The holiday is celebrated on the day Union Army Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to read the Confederate order abolishing the institution of chattel slavery in the state.
Slavery was abolished in the Confederate states two years earlier when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, “all persons held as slaves … but Texas, a holdout state where slavery continued, geographically Washington, Was away from DC, at a time when news traveled slowly.
While the Order of Lincoln abolished slavery in the Confederate states, it was still legal and practiced in the central border states of Delaware and Kentucky until the 13th Amendment was ratified in December 1865.
The Juneteenth National Independence Day Act was signed into law by President Joe Biden last year, the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was added in 1983. Across the country, the Juneteenth holiday is marked with celebrations, gatherings and marches in honor. The Struggle and Sacrifice of Black Ancestors.
The Doodle – the work of Virginia-based father-son guest artist duo Jerome and Jeromah Jones – pays tribute to both Father’s Day and Juneteenth with art that illustrates that bridge between multiple generations, with a focus on education, joy, community and . Meaning of liberation.
The pair said that Juneteenth is important to them because it marked a great milestone in the black struggle for liberation.
“This notification that our ancestors received 157 years ago is an essential catalyst for considering what freedom looks like for us as a people today,” he told Google. “The festival is a special commemoration because it highlights the good news for a change that was given to those who were once chained.”
With the unity of cultural events of previous years, the artists said they were inspired by the importance of two holidays falling on the same day this year. The pair describe the symbolism depicted in their acrylic and oil paint creations:
The hand in the background symbolizes the descendants of those who were liberated on June 19, 1865, and were the children of the father for generations to come. The brush is an allegorical representation of the bridge that connects the roots to their fruits. If we gave our Google Doodle a title, we would call it Painting in the Footsteps of Our Freedom. Drawing on the footprints means that we are coloring the past so that the legacy is visible to every child in the class. The red, black and green sankofa bird looks back, symbolizing the opening of the history book in our lap to bridge the generational gap.
