This is a perfect illustration of the wokeness stampede overrunning actual history.

"Juneteenth" had never had any significance in Virginia. It is silly and should be regarded as offensive.

For decades after the Civil War, black Virginians celebrated Emancipation Day on January 1--the date the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect--with parades and festivities across the state. The premise of "Juneteenth" is that slaves were unaware of emancipation until long after the war ended, supposedly because of some incident in Texas. But that plainly was not the case in Virginia. Slaves kept quiet about it, but they knew what was happening in the war and passed the information among themselves. See Booker T. Washington's book Up From Slavery for an interesting description of that. The notion that slaves and former slaves in Virginia weren't aware of emancipation until "Juneteenth" is preposterous. Equally preposterous is the notion that they didn't know the dates of the month and would have invented the ridiculous word "Juneteenth." If something occurred on June 19, they would have known it was the "nineteenth," just as white folks would.

This "Juneteenth" business derives from a proclamation issued by a federal general in Galveston who believed there were former slaves in his jurisdiction who were unaware of emancipation--it never had any relevance to Virginia, or anywhere else for that matter. That proclamation, by the way, went on to advise freedmen to stay at their present location and work for wages. "They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere." That is the proclamation that we now honor with a state holiday.

It is entirely appropriate that Virginia set aside a state holiday to celebrate emancipation. But choosing "Juneteenth" is ridiculous and ahistorical.