Emily Dixon
When considering what Juneteenth means to me, this quote from "High on the Hog: How African-American Cuisine Transformed America" on Netflix seemed to sum it up the best: “It’s a complicated story…a story of freedom delayed.”
Juneteenth, as we know, is the day in 1865 that enslaved African-American/Black people were freed in Galveston, Texas, the last in the United States to be emancipated. While other states have different Emancipation Days based on when they announced, Juneteenth is the most widely known. So the Black community celebrates this day as our cultural Independence Day; our Freedom Day.
For me, a young Black person who was born and raised in the South, Juneteenth is the commemoration of the untold and unheard stories of enslaved African-American—stories of their journey from West Africa to the shores of America, stories of resilience and struggles with being treated as second-class citizens, stories of faith and fights for justice, and so many more. These stories should be heard and commemorated on the level of major holidays, yet in an intentional way that focuses less on the celebration and more on the remembrance. Even the pursuit of celebrating Juneteenth is complicated.
Looking at the back half of the quote above, Juneteenth is also a reminder of the stories being created now. It’s a reminder that while this emancipation was 156 years ago, it’s only been 156 years. Progress is happening; however, equitable freedom is slow in arriving. My great-grandmother was born in 1905 to parents who were sharecroppers. My mother attended a segregated elementary and middle school. Many other instances in my personal life and in the lives of others in the Black community remind us that we still have so much further to go to experience true freedom. Because for every accomplishment and instance of Black Excellence, there are instances of another Black person killed unnecessarily or a structural mistreatment of a Black person that exemplify the work still needed.
No matter how complicated Juneteenth is, for me, it is a must. Juneteenth celebrates the beauty of being African American/Black/a person of the African diaspora. It celebrates the tenacity and the fortitude to move forward as a community. It celebrates the history, good and bad, of the Black American and the history of America overall. Juneteenth means Black Excellence, Black Girl Magic, Black Boy Joy, Black Trauma, Black Suffering, Black Pain, and all things Black in America.
Juneteenth is not just for Black people. It is, however, a time to celebrate the Black American, to remember the experiences of enslaved Black people, and to realize that we, the Black community, and we, the United States, have many more miles to go on our journey. Let us eat that red velvet cake, soul food and other traditional items and let us be motivated by the commemoration to continue sharing these stories.