Three years after a national reckoning on racial inequality and injustice roiled communities and institutions throughout this nation, the Juneteenth holiday prompts us to reflect on the progress made, not only in the time since but in the more than 400 years since the first Africans arrived in present-day Hampton.
Juneteenth should be celebratory and, indeed, there will be plenty of events that will mark the occasion with appropriate joy and revelry. But it should also prompt us to continue the steady march of progress, so that all Americans can share the bounty of freedom and liberty which are this nation’s foundational aspirations.
Two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Declaration, freeing slaves in those states rebelling against the federal government, Union forces reached Galveston, Texas. The war was over — the Confederates had surrendered two months earlier — but it wasn’t until U.S. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 that all enslaved persons in the state were informed that they were free.
The date of that order, June 19, became an annual celebration, known as Freedom Day, Emancipation Day or, colloquially, Juneteenth. It was observed primarily among Black communities in the former Confederacy but its recognition expanded in subsequent years.
Black history has always been central to Virginia’s story, though its framing often depended on who was telling it.
It was here in Hampton Roads, at Point Comfort, where the first enslaved Africans set foot in North America, more than 400 years ago. And it was at Fort Monroe, occupying that same land, where slaves risked their lives to seize their freedom under the protection of Union forces during the Civil War.
When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it was first read in Virginia under a large oak tree, which still stands proudly today on the campus of Hampton University. One can only imagine the sight of a community of people knowing their lives and their future were finally their own.
That was true, for a time. Reconstruction empowered Black Americans, inviting them to participate as full members of American society. They asserted their political will, pursued their academic aspirations and enjoyed economic opportunity.
But the door they were invited to enter quickly slammed shut. Jim Crow laws erected barriers to vote, to own businesses and to attend schools of their choosing. Enforcement of this strict segregation came through the power of the state or the viciousness of the mob.
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s forced the nation to take a hard look in the mirror. Protesters rightly asked how a nation that set forth its belief that “All men are created equal” could abide by a divided society and its two-tiered system of justice, commerce and democracy.
To hear some tell it today, those hard-won achievements transformed the United States into a color-blind nation. They are only too quick to repeat one line of Martin Luther King Jr.’s seminal 1963 speech to support that assertion, ignoring a body of work that firmly expected far more from his fellow Americans.
The protests in 2020 that followed the murder of George Floyd by Minnesota police officers asked similar questions of this nation — and of all of us. How can all lives matter if Black lives are seen as disposable or inconsequential? How can we continue to turn a blind eye to their suffering? How can we continue to marginalize their remarkable contributions to the fabric of this country?
The General Assembly and former Gov. Ralph Northam made a powerful statement three years ago by designating Juneteenth a state holiday. The federal government followed a year later.
While symbols are important and meaningful, they are no substitute for action. While the United States has made tremendous strides toward racial justice, there is still a long road to travel.
As we mark this holiday, we should celebrate that progress and pledge ourselves to moving forward, never back, in our pursuit of equality.
