Juneteenth – a holiday that some Americans were unaware of – will be noted in a news special.
At 8 p.m. Friday, ABC will have “Juneteenth: A celebration of Overcoming.” It will include reports from Galeveston (where the celebration began) and Tulsa (where interest was stirred this year).
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on Jan. 1, 1863 and the Civil War ended in April of 1865, but slavery persisted in Texas. It was on June 19, 1865, that Union troops reached Galveston with word that the slaves were free.
That returned to the headlines when Donald Trump planned to hold a June 19 rally in Tulsa, Okla. Critics objected to the fact that it would be during the Juneteenth celebration … during a time of racial protests nationwide … and in a city that had the worse racial confrontation in U.S. history: In 1921, an unknown number of people were killed, wounded and interned as a massive area known as the “Black Wall Street” was destroyed.
Trump eventually shifted the rally to Saturday. Now ABC will have an hour viewing the history, the celebrations and the current turmoil. It will include anchors Linsey Davis and Byron Pitts, “View” panelist Whoopi Goldberg and reporters Deborah Roberts, TJ Holmes, Steve Osunsami and Janai Norman.
In another sign of renewed interest in black history and culture, the BET awards will be simulcast on CBS and BET for the first time. That will be a virtual ceremony on June 28, with comedian Amanda Seales hosting and a rich variety of performers, including Jennifer Hudson, Usher, Alica Keys, John Legend, Chloe X Halle, Wayne Brady, Megan Tee Stallion, Kane Brown, Lil Wayne and D Smoke.