Editorial: Juneteenth reminds us that freedom is everything

On June 19, 1865, Union troops reached Galveston, Texas, and informed its Black residents that they were a free people. The 246 years of slavery that began in Virginia in 1619 finally came to an end with that news reaching the last of the enslaved people in America.

The Civil War had ended the previous April, and two years before, in January 1863, President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing (on paper, anyway) enslaved people in the rebellious southern states, which included Texas.

It took more than two years for word of that proclamation to reach the 250,000 enslaved men, women and children across the Lone Star State.

In Galveston, people joyfully celebrated their freedom, and the event became known as “Juneteenth.” In June 2021, 156 years later, President Biden signed legislation making Juneteenth a national holiday.

Tijuana Fulford, executive director of the Butterfly Effect Project, who organized a Juneteenth event this year at their Jamesport HQ said, “I think that the most important thing that Juneteenth means to me is the idea that we can finally move forward, the idea that I’m allowed to dream today — I can actually give and receive openly today, I’m free.”

At last year’s Juneteenth celebration in Greenport—this year’s is June 28—Greenport Village Clerk Candace Hall quoted civil rights leader Fannie Lou Haimer, “Nobody’s free until we are all free,” and left the group with the challenge to share the conversation and what was learned with their networks and communities.

Freedom is attached to many aspects of life. In a State of the Union address in January 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt denoted four essential freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.

These American values seem under attack today, but then, every generation must fight to make these freedoms reality.

Fear still exists in every community, especially these days, exacerbated by a government that often uses cruelty as a tactic. This must be fought and eliminated by good people taking a stand for justice and peace.