“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”  ~Excerpt from the Emancipation Proclamation

June 19, 1865, two and a half years after the emancipation proclamation was signed, the last slaves were set free in Texas. Like any people who are set free, the day became a reflection. A day to remember the past and to celebrate new found freedom. Similar to the Fourth of July, or Cinco de Mayo, or Passover, or Canada Day, or any number of holidays around the world in which victory over bondage is celebrated, Juneteenth was born in 1865. It has been celebrated ever since. Just imagine the President of the United States proclaiming slaves forever free! Not only that, but also putting the power of the country behind his words to recognize and maintain their freedom and his promise to do no acts of repression against them! Unheard of in that day and time!

However, that promise was a long way from being fulfilled. To this day, there are still battles against repression of African Americans. Yet, Lincoln had the bravery, in his time, to put ink to paper. To give words power and to make a proclamation, even though he knew it would not be well received by those who benefited from slave labor. Those who resisted change, and are resisting it still, have made the journey to freedom as difficult as possible for African-Americans, and swept the truth under the carpet for the rest of us.

Case in point, I only learned of this holiday a couple of years ago. It has been celebrated since 1865. For 158 years. I was never taught anything about it in school. I was never taught anything about the Tulsa Massacre either. Being from the South, you would think I would have been taught more specifics of the Confederate cause for increasing slavery by requiring every new territory to allow it. Or making it illegal to ban slavery in the confederate states. Yet, I am ignorant of so much of our country’s history because none of the ugly parts were taught to me. In fact, they were changed so that I was given false twisted information. All of us were. I have wrestled with this new-to-me information for a couple of years now. My anger is palpable, my frustration mind boggling. I have no answers for why this information was kept from me. Recognizing my lack of knowledge as part of the problem has caused me to dig deeper and ask more questions. Like why a holiday such as Juneteenth is controversial.

The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Shouldn’t we all be celebrating the freedom granted on June 19^th, 1865? Isn’t it a fulfillment of this powerful statement from our Declaration of Independence? And while we still have so far to go to make it completely true, isn’t the freedom offered to those formerly enslaved worth acknowledgement not just by communities of color, but by ALL of us?

I went to my first Juneteenth celebration yesterday. I sat in a circle of people who came to listen to one another. To converse about diversity and differences. I listened to a presentation of Black history in our region; it was so rich and filled with amazing people I had never heard of before. I saw historic pottery created by a slave who carved poetry into his work, and I witnessed a local artist, originally from Kenya, sewing amazing beadwork onto leather. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make the cookout in the evening, but I plan to in the future because it is important. Important to listen, to know and to celebrate freedom. Learning the facts is not always comfortable, but if I do not understand what happened in the past, I am doomed to repeat it.