By Karen Haave
The Village of Monee’s inaugural Juneteenth celebration featured music, dancing, a cultural exhibit, food, and an informative and inspirational speech from a community leader.
The event took place on the grounds of the Monee Village Hall. It is anticipated next year it will be held at the new park pavilion nearing completion a bit further down the block.
The event was met with enthusiastic response from those participating.
Monee Township Trustee William “Billy” Morgan found it “lively and fun.”
“Our nation’s newest federal holiday, Juneteenth is a reminder the road to justice, equality, and freedom is long,” he said. “Not only did it take more than two years after Emancipation for those enslaved to be freed from the chains, but it took another 150 years of celebrations for it to become a federal holiday.
“Monee’s first Juneteenth event was a lively and fun opportunity for the people of Monee of all backgrounds to come together, dance, eat, learn, and celebrate freedom.
“Thank you to the Village of Monee for putting on this fantastic event.”
Christi Holston, president of the Monee Historical Society, said the varied celebrations are creating new traditions. “Monee held it’s first ever Juneteenth Celebration, and I’m sure it won’t be the last! Lots of fun and new friends and great food.
“I’ve been to three Juneteenth celebrations this year, Monee Historical Society’s, Crete Historical Society’s, and now the Village of Monee’s. Each one celebrated freedom day a little differently, but what a great start to new traditions!”
Second Place Church Pastor David Short said he “was encouraged that our village hosted a Juneteenth event. For me it was a wonderful opportunity to learn, reflect, and renew my commitment to bridge-building.”
In his speech, the Rev. James Hunt, senior pastor of New Hope Christian Community Church, said the holiday “is important because it encourages us to consider the meaning of freedom. This Monday is Juneteenth, which marks the third anniversary of the federal recognition of the holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in Confederate states.
“In 2021, Legislation was enacted to make Juneeenth a national holiday. This year, 28 states will legally recognize Juneteenth as a public holiday, according to the Pew Research Center. By the time President Biden declared Juneteenth a federal holiday, almost all states had voted independently to commemorate Juneteenth as a day of observance.
“Juneteenth also is known as Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Juneteenth Independence Day, and Black Independence Day. Juneteenth gets its name from combining ‘June’ and ‘nineteenth’.
“Juneteenth is one of the most important anniversaries in our nation’s history. In years past, Juneteenth was primarily celebrated by southern Black folks, especially Black Texans, who commemorated the day with intimate gatherings, Black anthems, and comfort food.
“This year’s Juneteenth celebrates the 158th anniversary of the day when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation and free the last enslaved Black Americans. The day came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln declared all enslaved persons free.
“On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and announced the end of the Civil War and the end of slavery,” Rev. Hunt continued.
“Although the Emancipation Proclamation came 2.5 years earlier on January 1, 1863, many slave owners continued to hold their enslaved people captive after the announcement, so Juneteenth became a symbolic date representing African American freedom. Gordo’s announcement, General Order No. 3, read: ‘The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property, between former masters and slaves and the connection heretofore existing between them, becomes that between employer and hired labor. The Freedmen are advised to remain at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed they will not be allowed to collect at military posts, and they will not be supported in idleness, either there or elsewhere.’
“In an article for NPR, Sharon Pruitt-Young wrote that when Granger arrived in Galveston, there still existed around 250,00 slaves, and they were not all freed immediately, or even soon.
“It was not uncommon for slave owners, unwilling to give up free labor, to refuse to release their slaves until forced to, in person, by a representative of the government, historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., wrote. Some would wait until one final harvest was complete, and some would just outright refuse to submit. It was a perilous time for Black people, and some former slaves, who were freed or attempted to get free, were attacked and killed.
“It’s perhaps unsurprising that many former slaves did not stay on the plantations as workers and instead left in search of new beginnings or to find family members who had been sold away,” Hunt said.
“It immediately changed the game for 250,000 people. Shane Bolles Walsh, a lecturer with the University of Maryland’s African American Studies Department, told NPR. Enslaved black people, now free, had ample cause to celebrate. As Felix Haywood, a former slave recalled, ‘Everybody went wild. We all felt like heroes. Just like that, we were free.’
“Before the reading of General Order No. 3,” Hunt went on, “many slave owners in Confederate states simply chose not to tell their slaves about the Emancipation Proclamation and did not honor it. They got away with it because, before winning the war, Union soldiers were largely unable to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation in Southern states.
“Still, even though slavery in the states was not abolished until the ratification of the 13th Amendment, the Emancipation Proclamation still played a pivotal role in that process, according to historian Lonie Bunch, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
“‘What the Emancipation Proclamation does that’s so important,’ Bunch said, ‘is it begins a creeping process of emancipation where the federal government now finally is taking firm stands to say slavery is wrong, and it must end’.
“After they were freed, some former slaves and their descendants would travel to Galveston annually in honor of Juneteenth. Black community leaders, led by a man named Jack Yates, a minister and community leader in Houston, saved $1,000 to purchase land in 1872 that would be devoted specifically to Juneteenth celebrations, according to the Houston Parks and Recreation Department. That land became Emancipation Park, a name it still bears. It was the first public park in the City of Houston and in the State of Texas. The earliest iterations of Juneteenth in Texas, which began following the end of the Civil War, ranged from ceremonial reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, to Black newspapers printing images of Abraham Lincoln in their pages.
“Other celebrations,” Rev. Hunt said, “included church services in which preachers had the congregation give thanks for their freedom, while encouraging them to be relentless in the ongoing struggle for racial equity.
“There were parades, large displays of song and celebration that shook the street. There were picnics, beauty pageants, baseball games, and songs that emanated through the streets.
“Early on, Juneteenth celebrations often also were involved in helping newly freed Black folks learn about their voting rights, according to the Texas State Historical Association. That tradition soon spread to other states, but it wasn’t uncommon for white people to bar Black people from celebrating in public spaces, forcing Black people to get creative. Jim Crow laws and the ongoing threat of violence in the ‘30s and ‘40s caused Juneteenth celebrations to be less visible.
“But by the early 1970s,” Hunt said, “Juneteenth celebrations slowly began to emerge as local cultural organizations began to lift up the holiday as a way to celebrate Black culture and history. In 1979, newly elected legislator Al Edwards Sr., built a coalition of supporters and introduced legislation to make June 19th a state holiday.
“So what is the significance of Juneteenth to the Black community? Why is Juneteenth important? Frederick Douglas said, ‘If there is no struggle, there is no progress.’
“Juneteenth is important because it gives the African American community an opportunity to lift up and celebrate our ancestors,” Rev. Hunt said.
“We remember and honor their struggle and are reminded we have what it takes to persevere in difficult times.
“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., once said, ‘We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.’
“Juneteenth is also important because, though we’ve come a mighty long way, there is still work to do until we can truly say we are one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
“Finally, Juneteenth is important because it encourages us to consider the meaning of freedom.
“As he was in Galveston, in the book, ‘How the Word is Passed,’ author Clint Smith recalls his experience after visiting the site and witnessing a reenactment. “As he walked through the place where the slaves gathered to hear General Granger, Smith imagined he was there when it all happened and how Juneteenth inspires celebration and recalls tragedy.
“He wrote: ‘Juneteenth, then, is both a day to solemnly remember what this country has done to Black Americans and a day to celebrate all Black Americans have overcome. It is a reminder that each day this country must consciously make a decision to move toward freedom for all of its citizens, and this is something that must be done proactively. It will not happen on its own. We should regularly remind ourselves how many people, who came before us, never got to experience it, and how many people there are still waiting’.”