FLASHBACK: Biden had no idea what Juneteenth was a year ago

President Biden, who signed into creation this week the federal vacation of Juneteenth National Independence Day this week, had simply final year not recognized that the vacation had nothing to do with the Tulsa Massacre.

In a video from a press convention a year ago, Joe Biden informed reporters “he’s going down to Texas on Juneteenth, right? On the first major massacre, literally speaking, of Black Wall Street years ago.”

Juneteenth is the “oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States,” based on the celebration’s web site. It commemorates the day that Union Soldiers, in 1865, “landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.” This occurred two and a half years after the emancipation proclamation.

The Tulsa Massacre, alternatively, occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 1, 1921. The Massacre, which stemmed from rumors spreading from an incident between a black teenager and white feminine elevator operator, killed as many as 300 folks, the overwhelming majority of whom have been black. According to the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum, the violence destroyed 35 metropolis blocks, and greater than 800 folks have been handled for accidents.

Despite the conflation on Biden’s behalf of the 2 occasions, they aren’t the identical factor, taking place states and years aside.

Juneteenth is marked with celebrations and remembrance of African-American pleasure, whereas the Tulsa Race Massacre is marked with reverence and disappointment. When signing the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, Biden stated the vacation can be a time to mirror on the “original sin” of slavery.