Atlanta students across generations say Juneteenth was not taught in their classrooms

Juneteenth commemorates the day enslaved people in Galveston, Texas finally learned they were free more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

For two generations of Atlanta students, it was a history lesson they did not learn in school.

Reginald Starr and Joseph Rosser are separated by more than six decades, but connected by the same school, Booker T. Washington High School.

Starr graduated from Booker T. Washington in 1964 and is president of the school's Athletic Boosters.

Rosser is the valedictorian of the class of 2026 and just finished his senior year there.

"Our relationship is definitely something like a grandfather to a grandson," said Rosser.

While their classrooms were decades apart, one lesson was missing from both.

Despite attending a school named after pioneering Black educator Booker T. Washington, neither learned about Juneteenth in the classroom.

Instead, both say they learned about the historical event the same way, which is on their own.

For Starr, that lesson came nearly a decade after graduation.

He told CBS News Atlanta he was living in Texas in the 1970s, and after serving in the United States Military and learned about it from locals he met. 

"Meeting people who were from Texas would talk about it, and when I really learned about it in depth is when Biden made it a national holiday, and that's what I really did research on it to find out what it was about," said Starr.

Rosser entered his freshman year shortly after President Joe Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday.

He says he knew he was celebrating something but did not really know what. 

"It's like, we're having a barbecue, but we don't know why we're having a barbecue," said Rosser.

He said he went out his way to find out more himself and asked a teacher after class one day.

Rosser said he believes Juneteenth deserves a place in the classroom so future students don't have to discover its history on their own.

"Why this is a celebration, and to our ancestors that have been through these hard times and just showing them that distinction of who we are and what they have represented and what they have went through," said Rosser.

While Starr said he wishes he had learned more about the holiday growing up, he is encouraged to see the next generation starting further ahead than his did. 

"What he has learned as opposed to what I've seen is different," said Starr, "We shouldn't shy away from history. It's important for all Americans to understand the history of the perils of this country and how we came to be such a great, great country."

It's a lesson passed from one generation to the next even if it hasn't made it into the classroom.

A spokesperson for Atlanta Public Schools told CBS News Atlanta that Juneteenth is not currently a required part of the state's social studies curriculum.