Juneteenth with Vernice

Juneteenth (from Wikipedia):

Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Juneteenth marks the anniversary of the announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, proclaiming freedom for enslaved people in Texas. Originating in Galveston, the holiday has since been observed annually on June 19 in various parts of the United States, often broadly celebrating African-American culture. The day was first recognized as a federal holiday in June 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law.

As I continue to do my own work to reconcile the history taught to me growing up, with the reality of what really took place, I find a thread of injustice running through our collective realities. Juneteenth helps me reflect, relearn and reclaim pieces of my heritage that were intentionally left out or covered up.

I want to share with you my personal Juneteenth celebration that took place at my residence in Flint, Michigan. I moved back to my hometown of Flint in 2020 just ahead of the stay at home mandate as COVID-19 became an epidemic. In my isolation I’ve been able to do a bit of reflection, about my career, my personal life and history, as well as the history of racism in this country. The unlearning that is so necessary for this journey has been eye-opening albeit painful.

My Juneteenth celebration this year was planned to bring family and community together to acknowledge our need for each other, just to survive, and to honor our ancestry that made it possible to live “free-ish” as Black folk in a country that has worked diligently to keep us second class citizens by denying us freedom and access.

This year is the first year we’ve gathered as a family since my mother passed in 2019. Before her passing we gathered every year to celebrate her birthday. Her last earthly birthday was celebrated January 2019 when Mother turned 107.

To commemorate both her death and the legacy of her life we planted a bush, called wine and roses, and a stone with the word forever to remind us that her loving spirit will live on in every life she has touched and will continue forever in her children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren and the many close friendships she nurtured.

In our CWACM community call on June 21 we also celebrated Juneteenth in a guided meditation by the rev dr candi dugas. We were asked to picture what freedom looks like.

Inspiration: The song “Free to Be You and Me”

candi asked us to consider the following questions:

• Where/when have you felt free?
• Who told you what freedom is?
• Are you living free today?
• Left to ponder the powerful question: What are we accepting in exchange for our freedom?

I hope each of us can look at events/holidays like Juneteenth to recognize both where we’ve come from and where we are going and most important the need to be on this life journey authentically and collectively. Our very survival depends on each of us doing our work to make our world more just for all.