Happy Juneteenth From the Crystal Dynamics Team!

Happy Juneteenth From the Crystal Dynamics Team!

June 19, 2023

Happy Juneteenth!

Here at Crystal Dynamics, it’s important to us that we continue to uplift communities outside of specific holidays and celebrations. Which is why for this Juneteenth we wanted to focus on a little bit of the history of this monumental day and share some resources that you as a reader can access to support Black communities all year long.

What is Juneteenth?

Juneteenth is now a federally recognized holiday, commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States. It specifically recognizes the issue of General Order No. 3 in 1865 in Galveston, Texas, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

While Juneteenth has been celebrated annually in many parts of the US, it only became a federal holiday in 2021. Celebrations originated in Texas, then spread across the South through the early 1900s, expanding beyond church celebrations into more community-centric festivals. They then carried more North all the way through the 1970s with the Great Northward Migration – a movement of 6 million African Americans from the South to the Northeast, Midwest, and West. It’s considered the longest-running African American holiday, expanding into lectures, exhibitions on Black history and culture, traditional songs and poetry reading, museum exhibits, and much more.

To learn more about the rich history and legacy of Juneteenth, here are some resources that you can check out:

Juneteenth and the Emancipation Proclamation: https://daily.jstor.org/juneteenth-and-the-emancipation-proclamation/

National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian: https://nmaahc.si.edu/juneteenth

The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth: https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-juneteenth

Britannica (stub): https://www.britannica.com/topic/Juneteenth

TED-Ed: What is Juneteenth, and Why Is It Important: https://youtu.be/lq8TNKZVEWs

How Can We Continue to Support the Black Community?

With the ongoing dialogue of representation in work, gaming, technology, and many other fields, it can feel overwhelming to find the best way to help and support. No one way is better than another, so we’d like to list some Black groups and organizations in gaming that you can support and uplift year round, along with games created by Black developers that should have your attention!