“It’s not a Black thing. It’s not a Texas thing. Juneteenth means freedom, and I mean it for everybody.””

NEDERLAND — George Erasmus, Dene and former nation chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said, “Where common memory is lacking, where people do not share in the same past, there can be no real community. Where community is to be formed, common memory must be created.”

Understanding the importance of Juneteenth gets the United States closer to a common memory and community. 

Renowned Harvard professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. says that there are the “Big Three” when it comes to dates to know in the history for enslaved African Americans. They are the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863; June 19, 1865, better known as Juneteenth; and the ratification of the the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865. 

The Emancipation Proclamation did not have much power when it was signed in 1863. You probably learned in school that all slaves were freed at this time. Most were not. The Emancipation Proclamation could only be enforced if Union troops took control of territory in the Confederacy. Dr. Gates and other historians believe that only about 500,000 of the 3.9 million enslaved people were freed at the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. 

Even when General Lee surrendered to General Grant on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, the fighting of the Civil War was not completely finished. There was more than one Confederate Army. 

Texas surrendered to the Union on June 2, 1865. Union General Gordon Granger came to Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, with General Order No. 3 and said that this territory is controlled by the Union Army and the enslaved people are free. 

From the National Archives, General Order No. 3 states, “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 slavers, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”

The day became known as Juneteenth, a day to celebrate freedom. Yes, there was freedom, but the daily struggles did not stop. The struggles for equality and justice have not stopped. 

The ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery in the United States.

Celebrating Juneteenth in Galveston, Texas, started in 1866. This celebration spread throughout Texas, the south, and beyond year after year. 

Dr. Opal Lee became known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth when at the age of 89 she started a movement to make Juneteenth a national holiday. 

Lee acutely understands the impact of racism and hate in the United States and when there is no common memory. When she was 12 years old, a white mob vandalized and burned down her family home in Fort Worth, Texas. The white mob did not think her family belonged in that neighborhood. It was June 19, 1939. 

On September 1, 2016, Dr. Lee started walking from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, DC, to raise awareness for Juneteenth. She walked 2.5 miles a day to coincide with the fact that it was 2.5 years from the time the Emancipation Proclamation was signed to the time that General Gordon Granger came to Galveston in 1865. 

On this walk she had 1.5 million signatures to deliver to Congress to help make Juneteenth a national holiday. She walked into Washington, DC, in January 2017. The bill did pass both houses of Congress, and on June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the bill into law that says Juneteenth is a national holiday. 

Dr. Lee was at the signing ceremony. 

In an interview with CBS News in 2022 Dr. Lee said, “It’s not a Black thing. It’s not a Texas thing. It’s not that. Juneteenth means freedom and I mean it for everybody.”

Dr. Lee is a mother, a teacher, an activist, a change maker, and at 99 years old she will celebrate Juneteenth this week. 

 If we are willing to listen and understand, people like Dr. Opal Lee shows us through their activism, their words, their footsteps, and how they live their lives to form stronger unified communities where common memories are created and learned. A place where voices from the past are not forgotten and voices in the present are heard. A place where neighbors do not turn a blind eye or are silent to injustice. 

“We have simply got to make people aware that none of us are free until we’re all free.” – Opal Lee