The Juneteenth Experience

The Juneteenth Day Celebration experience is a great opportunity to learn more about the history of the oldest American African celebration in the United States of America. It has been my experience that there are always knowledgeable people available at the Juneteenth Day Celebration who are willing to share the history behind what amounted to a second American Independence Day for African Americans. Emancipation allowed this nation to grow even closer to the true meaning in the constitution (that all men are created equal).

Since I began paying attention to Juneteenth Day Celebrations I realize that Juneteenth, which is sometimes also referred to as emancipation day, is celebrated as early as January in some states. The latest Juneteenth celebration that has come to my attention happens in the month of August, in Ontario Canada. The last slaves in the U.S. to learn of their freedom received the glorious news in the month of June (June 19 to be exact) and since that happened in (the slaves vernacular) the "teenths" of the month, the time between the 13th and the 19th of June, 1865 the name Juneteenth was born.

Juneteenth honors our African ancestors who would never know the freedoms that some of them prayed, fought, and died for; the thousands of black souls whose perseverance and courage got them to the promised land in this lifetime, and the thousands of black, and white souls who help those in search of freedom and brave enough to purchase that freedom with their lives, if need be.  Juneteenth is a shout-out to the abolitionist builders and maintenance workers on the Underground Railroad for helping so many African American people on their quests for freedom. Some people insist on looking at the Juneteenth Day Celebration as a sad reminder of the past I see it more as a reminder of how far American African people have come as part of the fabric of America.

The Juneteenth Day Celebration came into existence over 160 years ago and over that time the progress of African Americans and the rest of this nation, when it comes to understanding and celebrating the Juneteenth Day Celebration, has been slow but steady. I had not even heard the word  Juneteenth until about 1993-1994 even though both of my parents come from the southern U.S. To me the Juneteenth Day Celebration is not all about slavery, it's about the freedom that took a long time to come and that is in many ways still fully unfolding itself, what I mean by that is, and I-kid-you-not, I was surprised to learn the year I finished my documentary, A Time to be Remembered, about the Juneteenth celebration; that same year (1995) the State of Mississippi had finally gotten around to ratifying the 13 Amendment (the abolishment of slavery everywhere in the United States).