Oswego, Yorkville school districts issue statements recognizing Juneteenth holiday

“The historical legacy of Juneteenth shows the value of never giving up hope in uncertain times and marks our country’s second independence day.”

Kendall County’s two largest school districts issued statements in recognition of Juneteenth as a federal and state holiday late last week.

On June 17, President Joe Biden signed into law legislation designating June 19 as a federal holiday. The Senate had unanimously passed legislation establishing the holiday June 15 and Congress passed it the next day in a rare bi-partisan 415-14 vote.

Gov. JB Pritzker also signed legislation designating Juneteenth a state holiday.

In a statement, Pritzker said, “I’m pleased to see the federal government join Illinois in recognizing Juneteenth as an official holiday, offering all Americans a day to reflect on the national shame of slavery and the work we must do to dismantle systemic racism.”

In response to the actions by federal and state officials, Yorkville School District 115 posted the following statement on its social medial accounts on June 19: “District 115 celebrates alongside its African-American community in recognizing Juneteenth. This holiday is used to celebrate the historical emancipation of the enslaved in the United States.”

Oswego School District 308 issued a statement that reads: “Oswego Community Unit School District is proud to recognize Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day and Emancipation Day. It is a holiday falling on June 19 every year and celebrates the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States. ‘Juneteenth’ was arrived at by combining the words ‘June’ and ‘nineteenth’.”

The statement also explained the symbolism in the official Juneteenth flag, depicting a star in the center on a background of blue and red, representing Texas, where the holiday was first observed, and the freedom of African-Americans in all 50 states. A zig-zag burst surrounds the center star, “inspired by a nova, a term astronomers use to identify new stars.”

“The nova found on the Juneteenth flag is representing a new beginning for African-Americans throughout the land,” the statement continued. “The arc between the red and blue represents a new horizon and new opportunities. The red, white and blue colors represent the American flag and serve as a reminder that slaves and their descendants were and are American.”

OSD 308′s statement also explained the significance of the colors red, black and green to Juneteenth.

“These colors are from the Pan-African flag, which was adopted by the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) at a conference in New York City in 1920,” the statement read.

At the conference, the statement continued, “The UNIA drafted and adopted a Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World, which included that red, black and green...be the colors signifying the African race. Those colors would represent blood (red), which unites all people; soil (black), for the people whose existence as a nation, though not a nation-state; and prosperity (green), the abundant and vibrant natural wealth of Africa, the Motherland.

The statement concludes: “The historical legacy of Juneteenth shows the value of never giving up hope in uncertain times and and marks our country’s second independence day.”