CLARENCE PAGE: The controversy surrounding the historic latta plantation reminds us of what Juneteenth can teach us | Columnists

After more than a century and a half of underestimation, the Emancipation Celebration known as Juneteenth brings out the regional differences in several ways that make me wonder if the Civil War really ended in 1865 – and if so, who won.

Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day and Emancipation Day, marks June 19, 1865, the day Union forces in Galveston, Texas, notified enslaved African Americans that the Civil War was over and slavery was abolished – two years later Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

In Illinois, where state license plates constantly remind us that it is the “Land of Lincoln,” the General Assembly passed not one but two laws to make Juniteenth a national holiday. One would come into effect next year, the other immediately, depending on which Governor JB Pritzker signs.

Both bills were sponsored in the House of Representatives by Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Chicago Democrat, after years of trying. So far he has told the Chicago Tribune, “It just wasn’t an appetite.” But in the last year of the race census, the measure passed both chambers of the state general assembly without dissenting votes. Twice.

The ease with which Illinois embraced Juneteenth is in sharp contrast to the dust on Historic Latta Plantation. The “Living History Museum” north of Charlotte, North Carolina, was canceled but refused to apologize for an event in June that inadvertently ruffled more feathers than a fox in a chicken coop.