Greenwich held a celebration of Juneteenth outside town hall on Monday.
The holiday stems back to events a century and a half ago. In Galveston, TX on June 19, 1865, more than two years after Abraham Lincoln issued of the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in Texas and other Southern secessionist states, Union Army Major General Gordon Granger informed the people of Texas that all enslaved people were free.
While Juneteenth has been celebrated in certain communities for more than 150 years, it did not become recognized as a federal holiday until 2021 when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law.
Monday’s event at Greenwich Town Hall kicked off with Ruby Durant singing Lift Every Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson, followed by God Bless America.
Selectwoman Janet stone McGuigan welcomed the crowd, and explained that when she learned that town hall had no event planned to mark Juneteenth she volunteered to organize a small observance.
She thanked the Diversity Advisory Committee for helping organize the event, and promised that an events committee would expand on future Juneteenth efforts.
Reverend Thomas Nins noted Greenwich was among the first, if not the first, to raise the Juneteenth flag last year.
“Now we are seeing other communities do it,” he said. “Kudos to the Town of Greenwich.”
Reverend Nins indicated an imaginary line and parted the crowd into two groups, telling both groups they were slaves.
“These slaves are told they are no longer slaves. They are free,” he said, pointing to one group.
“You’re not,” he said to the other. “That’s Juneteenth.”
Bobby Walker Jr, who is the co-chair of the First Selectman’s Diversity Advisory Committee, said he was originally from Texas.
“Unlike many of you who may have heard of Juneteenth for the first time in 2020, I have grown up my entire life celebrating Juneteenth,” Walker said. “It was amazing to me when this hit the national press in summer 2020 how many didn’t know what Juneteenth was about.”
It was in the summer of 2020, after the killing of George Floyd in police custody spurred nationwide protests against racism and police brutality, including a protest here in Greenwich, that Juneteenth gained new prominence.
“Growing up in Dallas, Juneteenth was always a part of what my community celebrated. For a little boy, until I left Dallas in 2000, we celebrated with large gatherings…” he said. “It was a tremendous time. In essence it was a time for us to celebrate the joy of being Black in America.”
“We spent our time remembering an event that commemorates the denial of promised freedom and systematic oppression. But, however, out of that past, we always spent our time acknowledging the people we had become and the promise of a future where we were able to determine our own path.”
“So Juneteenth was magical in my community in South Dallas – the pride we felt, resilience to live the American Dream that was so long denied, our commitment with each other to move our race forward. These messages were ingrained in our community, my friends and our family.
“There is a line that is strong – from 1619 in Jamestown, to Juneteenth in 1865, to Brown vs the Board of Education in 1954, all the way through the summer of 2020 and today – the resilience of Black people to realize the promises that America has to offer – that’s what we celebrated in Dallas throughout my youth and this message still rings in my heart today,” Walker said.
Mr. Walker urged everyone to take the time to learn more about the holiday and how the legacy of slavery has continued to impact the Black community.
“Learn how efforts around the country to stop teaching various topics in American history because of how it makes some people feel is actually denial of our greatest opportunity to honor all of those who came before us and to unite to build a better future for all that come after us.”
“Our country’s history – all of it – the good, the bad – can help provide a blueprint for creating a country where we live up to providing full access to the American Dream for all American citizens.”
Mary Lee Kiernan, CEO of the YWCA noted that early on, the holiday celebrations involved newly freed slaves about voting rights and other Constitutional rights and elements of freedom.
“Juneteenth has also included parades and church services, musical performances and other public events, and we are so pleased as a YWCA federation to see a resurgence of these events and those recognitions around the country.”
“Juneteenth is also an opportunity for all Americans, not just African-Americans, to celebrate African-American culture and heritage. It’s a day to raise up and recognize the tremendous contributions to our history, our progress as a nation, our culture.”
State Senator Fazio (R-36) also shared thoughts about the holiday.
“For centuries, slavery represented an affront, a violation of Biblical truths and political truths. How could we all be created in the image of a loving God and subjugate one class of people beneath another? How could we believe in equal political rights, a voice for everybody and rob certain classes of people of the right to vote, of the right to be free of political rights?”
“It took the sacrifice of many dying in the Civil War, fighting for equality in the Civil Rights movement, and the suffering of Black Americans in the centuries until we could achieve greater equality,” Fazio added. “We always must fight to make our nation more perfect.”
State Rep Rachel Khanna (D-149) said she had seen a headline that characterized Juneteenth as the nation’s second Independence Day. “That rings true for me,” she said. “Today we recognize and honor all those who fought for and continue to fight for equality and recognize the countless contributions Black people made for this nation. And yet we still have more to do to protect the freedoms we have achieved so far and expand freedom for all our citizens.”
State Rep Hector Arzeno (D-151) said I invite all of you here, wherever your daily life may take you, and invite all my colleagues in pubic office, that Juneteenth is not only one day. It should be (reflected) every day in our daily actions. We should remember that.”
State Rep Steve Meskers (D-150) noted that, “In fact the long road to freedom was built with many obstacles and setbacks, and in this United States the number of African-American politicians reached a peak in the 1870’s during Reconstruction, and that would not be surpassed again until the 1970s. Waves of voter suppression and intimidation, and yes, lynching, stymied the aspiration for equality in our country. It was not until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that active and legal voter suppression was outlawed.”
“While much has been accomplished and much remains to be done. we saw the lawn signs at town hall weeks ago, and we know that hatred and bigotry are still alive. Our battle for equity, diversity and inclusion is not over.”
First Selectman Fred Camillo noted Greenwich had been one of the first towns in Connecticut to celebrate Juneteenth.
“As we think about why we are here today, let us remember all those people who were enslaved, and all those people who died being enslaved, and all those people that died in the pursued of freedom,” Camillo said.”Let us remember the 761,000 Americans that died in the Civil War, especially the 411,000 Union soldiers who died specifically on this issue.”
Camillo said Abraham Lincoln was a little known one-term Congressman out of Illinois, who in 1860, against all odds, became President of the United States on the issue of slavery and was arguably the greatest President.
“This is something he cared the most about. This is something he paid for his life with five years later.”
“Let us remember people like Frederick Douglass who presented the greatest argument for freedom, then, and it still stands today,” Camillo added.
From Janet Stone McGuigan:
Growing up I was fascinated by a small ruby-colored pitcher with gold lettering – Gettysburg 1863 – on my grandmother’s bookshelf. She explained that her grandfather, a Scottish immigrant, had enlisted in the Union Army with his brother and fought at Gettysburg. As a child I imagined that when the fighting ended he then went to the gift shop, I didn’t understand that forty years after the battle he returned to Gettysburg to reflect on what he would describe as the defining event of his life, and brought home with him this commemorative souvenir. But I could understand, he had to have been brave.
Now I’m older than their mother was when she bade farewell to her only children, and I reflect how brave she had to have been, how much faith she had to have had in her adopted country, and her faith that, if her sons did not return from the war, the outcome was worth them dying for. I also now must acknowledge that their bravery and faith pales in comparison to the enslaved people they were fighting to set free, who had to have faith that one day, even if that day didn’t come for them, their descendants would experience freedom.
Well, that day came. The freedom we share is a work in progress, and we share the hope that the future will be ever brighter. The story of Juneteenth began generations ago, and it is this generation’s duty to pass it forward. Just like that treasured souvenir, we need something to help us remember and pass this story on, the way it let me connect to the great-great grandfather I never met but hope passed on to me some of his bravery and faith.