Celebrating Juneteenth!
Story Time
My father retired from the Army after serving 20 years (Thank you for your service, Dad!) and our family moved to Texas. We were greeted with the news that the DFW area was experiencing a record temperature setting summer. What a welcome! Getting adjusted to the heat, making new friends, and settling into a new church community, allowed us the opportunity to be immersed in Texas culture beyond what we had watched on tv.
As we continued to settle in we saw banners in the surrounding communities announcing upcoming festivals celebrating something called Juneteenth. Now this is where I confess to having never heard of the day and also adopting a pretty negative attitude about it. It felt like a made up holiday. Note: I was applying the availability of information in modern times to a different time and context and in so doing, discredited something simply because it was unfamiliar to me.
Encountering Cultural Unfamiliarity
Some steps I could have taken could have been to have asked questions and studied the subject before settling into a mindset of “this is not important”. It was not until I became an adult that I began to learn more about the observance and now national holiday known as Juneteenth.
Looking Back at American History
As a child of the 80’s and a proud member of Generation X, I learned like most American children about the existence of and brutality of slavery. Abraham Lincoln was my favorite president. After all, as an African American I felt a sense of gratitude to the man that gave the executive order for the Emancipation Proclamation. This order in 1883 effectively freed all enslaved persons. My memories of these lessons in school were pretty straightforward. Slavery ended, the words in the constitution were finally true for everyone that “all men are created equal”. It should be noted the Emancipation Proclamation only named the states that had seceded from the Union, of which Texas was included.
Juneteenth Begins
Even though there was a proclamation of Freedom, it would be nearly two years that some still lived in bondage. The news had not reached them yet, and it was not until the good news was brought by Union Soldiers that all those in the Confederate states were free. Can you imagine learning that you could have experienced freedom two years earlier but instead have had to continue to endure unthinkable suffering?
It was in June of 1865, the news of the executive order finally reached Texas, one of the states that had seceded prior to the Civil War and listed in the Emancipation Proclamation. 250,000 people were freed that day. Since the news arrived on June 19, the name given to commemorate the day is Juneteenth. Note: The 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, was ratified in December of 1865.
Why Celebrate Juneteenth Today?
Celebrations are important because it’s a time to remember significant things (i.e. birth, marriage, beginnings, and endings). What I in ignorance disregarded as a made up holiday is indeed a day of great importance. Freedom is always cause for celebration. It was not enough for the message of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach only some of the confederate states. Juneteenth is a reminder of America’s past. It’s a commemoration of people, image bearers of God, being granted the freedom God has intended for us all. Juneteenth is also a catalyst to remember the progress that has been made for equality for all in the generations that have followed. Working to ensure everyone has access to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is the ongoing legacy of Juneteenth.
Juneteenth as Believers
The message of Juneteenth is perhaps one of the most powerful parallels to a spiritual reality we share as believers: those who have not yet heard. While the proclamation of freedom went out when Jesus rose from the dead and commissioned his disciples, there are still many who have not yet heard of the power and the liberation that is available to them. As the Apostle Paul beautifully wrote,
“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’”
Romans 10:14-15 ESV
As believers we get to partner with other members of the Body of Christ to carry His message of freedom. May we never forget there are still so many who have yet to hear the message that they are able to be free and have a place and purpose in the Kingdom of God.
As believers who are called to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, Juneteenth is an amazing opportunity to engage with others in your local community.
Three ways to celebrate Juneteenth as believers:
Celebrate the way you would any other new tradition: find food, music, dance, storytelling and embrace what is good!
Learn the history with an unbiased lens. Our own national history is important to us, it’s the reason it’s easy to be defensive, but it’s also why it is so important to embrace truth. Here are a few books we recommend:
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
by Harriet Jacobs
by Annette Gordon-Reed
Frederick Douglas: Prophet of Freedom
by David Blight
Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution by Eric Foner
3. Share the real story. Whether your outlet is social media, a pulpit or the children you are able
to instruct. Let’s help the next generation live with awareness, empathy and a celebration of freedom.
