Juneteenth has gone underappreciated by many, including Black Americans. 

The relationship between Black Americans and the holiday have long been nuanced. 

Haillee (who declined to give her last name) is a North Carolina native. Her mother is from the Virgin Islands, and her dad from the north. “Juneteenth is a relatively new holiday to me. I didn’t really grow up with any knowledge of Juneteenth,” she told The Tribune.

She wasn’t taught about the holiday in school, and it wasn’t really talked about, “until much later, maybe like two or three years ago.” 

President Joe Biden made Juneteenth National Independence Day a federal holiday in 2021. Just a year prior, massive uprisings against police brutality and African Americans put public pressure on corporations and elected officials to make concessions for diversity, equity and inclusion. 

“It just feels like a reactionary response to what was happening when the protests were happening and people were getting a little too organized,” Haillee said. “I think it was a concession that the U.S. government made. It doesn’t really feel like there’s anything behind it. I mean, it is nice to have a day off from work.”

That said, many working class people are Black and don’t get the day off. “I think white people should be working,” Haillee said. 

Juneteenth commemorates the day the last enslaved Africans in Texas were finally informed of their freedom under the Emancipation Proclamation by Union Soldiers in 1865. But what does freedom truly mean, especially under the current administration?

“I feel like it’s a platitude, and, materially, nothing has changed for Black folks for a very long time. I’m unimpressed,” Haillee said. 

Serayah Silver is a multidisciplinary artist and service worker. Silver told The Tribune that freedom is something self-determined, especially for Black Americans, or Black people throughout the diaspora. 

“We’ve been creating a kind of freedom for ourselves, not even since then, since before then,” Silver said. “I mean, that’s what Blackness in America is: the creation, and first and foremost, creation of our own culture, of our own identity, of our own freedom.”

Sharing food, listening to music and letting loose comes with that, Silver said. Celebration and reflection go hand in hand. 

Constance Sartor Walker was born and raised in Durham. She has embodied Durham’s Black history as a resident of historically Black West End neighborhood.

For four years, she has hosted a Juneteenth celebration that blocks off Carroll Street with music, food, vendors and games. This year’s celebration will be the biggest yet. “Instead of it just being a social event, we’re gonna, I call put a little ‘teeth’ to it,” she told The Tribune.

This year, the celebration will highlight Durham’s Black leadership. “We are going to add on a day of recognition to the ones in this generation who are leading us in this city,” she said. “Whether they’re there or not, their names will come up, and you will know who they are, and the history that they are making by serving in the capacity that they’re serving in.” 

Walker said Juneteenth’s significance needs to be steadfastly carried on to the younger generations. It is imperative that the celebration take place on June 19, the actual holiday, instead of the 20^th or 21st. This year, she said the city of Durham didn’t grant her organization, the West End/Lyon Park Legacy Project, any money to hold the celebration, as it has in years past. 

Still, she expects almost 400 attendees as it’s open to the public. There will be coloring pages of famous historical Black figures, basketball shooting and jump rope contests, food trucks and information about community resources.

“We have to tell the history and let people know how important it is for us to keep the freedom,” Walker said. “We’ve not only got to be the storytellers of our history, we have to leave a legacy of what we're talking about. We can't tell children what to do if we are not doing it ourselves.” 

Comments