MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
On this day in 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation that had been issued some 2 1/2 years earlier. More than 150 years later, President Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday. To talk about the history and significance of this day, we've called Isabel Wilkerson. She's the author of several critically acclaimed books that speak to issues of history and memory, including "The Warmth Of Other Suns," and she is with us now. Good morning. Thank you so much for joining us once again.
ISABEL WILKERSON: Oh, great to be here.
MARTIN: So I'm going to read from an essay you wrote that published Monday in The New York Times. You wrote - (reading) for generations, learning history meant memorizing dates and battles and military generals, laws and edicts, Supreme Court rulings. History was at a remove from regular people and everyday life.
OK, duly noted.
WILKERSON: (Laughter).
MARTIN: But June 19, 1865, is an actual day where something happened. So what do you think? What does this day signify to you?
WILKERSON: Well, it's a day that asks us to contemplate exactly what slavery was. You know, so many of us - you know, it's sort of thought of in our country as it was a sad, dark chapter in our country's history when it was, in fact, the foundation of the country's social, political and economic order. I don't think we think of it as sort of the foundation and infrastructure of our country and what we've inherited. I think that people may not recognize the significance of slavery in the building of the country.
And let me just emphasize how long slavery lasted to begin with. In writing the last book, "Caste," I tried to put this history in perspective, and I did the numbers. And so slavery on this soil predated the country itself. It lasted for 246 years. I don't think a lot of us think of it in that way. That means it lasted for 12 generations. And how many greats do we have to add to the word grandparent to begin to conceive of how long slavery lasted in this country?
MARTIN: Well, that does really put it into context. Does it matter that it's a federal holiday now, in your view?
WILKERSON: I think that it is a day and a moment. It's interesting that it also comes close to the country's celebration of itself on July Fourth. I mean, that's - they're kind of paired at this point now. And it's - for some people, this could be viewed as the new beginning for an entire group of people who'd been held in captivity for so long that this became the Independence Day for them, as well. I think that it's important for all of us. I mean, for those who are descended from people who were enslaved, it's a day to recall the fortitude and the perseverance of the ancestors. I think for the rest of the country, for all Americans, it's a time to commemorate the role of enslaved people and the central role of slavery in the building of this country and to recognize that the country was built by people who were not able to really benefit from their hard labors.
I mean, you think about how, you know, financially, slavery was akin to, like - you know, the tech stocks of the 17th century was a way to get rich quick in that era. It was the economic infrastructure upon which the country was built. Legally, it was built into the fabric of the nation's laws. Socially and politically, it established who could do what in this country, who could own property or who could be property based upon what they look like or what they were perceived to be. It established the racial hierarchy that survives to this day and that, you know, is, in some ways, the underpinnings of some of the - many of the divisions and ruptures that we're seeing today. So I think that this is a time that allows us to see the significance of something that we otherwise would not be thinking about but that is central to what the country became.
MARTIN: For people of African descent, this sort of victory over this demeaning life condition is, of course, something to celebrate. But what about everybody else? You know, we're in a moment where there is a movement to not discuss aspects of American history that are deemed to make certain people feel bad. And this idea has taken hold in certain school districts, for example, around the country. And a large number of them, in fact, have sort of eliminated things from curriculum that are deemed to make people feel bad. And I wonder how you would think about - like, how do you - how would you answer that?
WILKERSON: Well, I would say that that's all the more reason to talk about this because the building of the country cannot be extricated from slavery. And enslaved people are the ones who cleared the land and built the early infrastructure of what would become the United States. They're the ones who built the wall in Lower Manhattan from which Wall Street takes its name. They built the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. They built the White House. And of course, they planted and harvested the cotton, the rice, tobacco and sugarcane that would make this the wealthiest nation on the planet, while they themselves were being paid nothing for 12 generations.
And also, on top of that, while their hard labors helped to build the country's wealth, they were - themselves were prohibited from learning to read or write or routinely were forcibly sold away from their children and parents and mates and experienced really unspeakable human rights abuses that would have been in violation of the Geneva Conventions had there been one at the time. So this is a day to recognize, I think, and to extend gratitude to 12 generations of people who gave so much to this country and received so little for their hard labors.
MARTIN: And before I let you go, I think it is interesting that - very noteworthy that the Pentagon has been at the forefront of scaling back, eliminating, what they consider to be identity-based celebrations. Like, they, you know, forbade celebrations of Black History Month and other sort of identity-recognizing events. But this is a situation where you could argue that the Army is at the forefront of the celebration. I mean, the Army arrived to enforce this federal law, and this has become part of our story, too. I wonder how you think about that. I mean, is there a way that people could embrace this as a victory as opposed to a source of shame?
WILKERSON: That is such a central point that you're making. This is not Black history. This is American history. All of the - you know, the actors and the benefactors and the architects of all of this were participants in what is American history. It's hard to imagine what the country would be had there been a different timeline. This is the timeline that we're on, and this is what happened. And it is hard to tell the history of this country without it.
MARTIN: That is Isabel Wilkerson. She is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of "Caste" and "The Warmth Of Other Suns." Isabel Wilkerson, thank you so much for joining us.
WILKERSON: Oh, thanks for having me.
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