Come Celebrate Liberation Season with Me!

I have created a holiday season in my family to help them connect Juneteenth with July 4. I call this season Liberation Season and I would like to invite you to join me! It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from, what you believe, what color you are or anything. We ALL can celebrate our country’s constant fight to be a free society for all people.

Juneteenth is the beginning of Liberation Season. Some reject this holiday, because they see it in a very limited way. To some, it seems unnecessary because it only happened in Texas, but I see Juneteenth as so much bigger than just something that happened in one state. Juneteenth symbolizes our country’s effort to go around the country to make sure every bit of slavery was ended. Gordon Granger was the soldier who took soldiers to enforce the freedom of the last 250,000 slaves in America that day on June 19, 1865. Lincoln had already been assassinated, Andrew Johnson was vigorously undoing all of the policies that Lincoln had put into place to help my ancestors become actual citizens of the country, but even still the country did not go back on its promise to end slavery. Gordon Granger himself was not really an advocate for Black people, but he honored the sacrifice of the lives of the many who died and the wishes of the deceased Lincoln. He honored the Constitution’s requirement that policies set by presidents have to be implemented or go through a full legal process to amend or abolish. Juneteenth is a beautiful example of how our country really tries to make the Constitution the supreme law of the land. It is so strong that even racist people had to do the work to finally end the captivity of my people. It was a messy process, but it happened nevertheless. Juneteenth is about celebrating how we all have to cooperate with the blue print of the country and that transcends feelings and opinions. Once the law is set, we have to work together to carry it out. So I share this with my children and we celebrate that we live in a country that even with all of its flaws, it works to live up to its promises to all of its citizens.

Juneteenth is also about the many people, Black, Native, and White who worked to finally end slavery. We all have ancestors who died on the Union side. We celebrate Juneteenth because FINALLY slavery was completely removed from our country. Forms of slavery still exist, but just like our ancestors fought against it to finally bring it to an end, we must continue the work of rooting out its progeny, like redlining, sundown towns (I used to live in one and was stopped by police), inequitable education, voting rights, discrimination on the job, and so much more. As they worked to remove actual slavery, we must work to remove it shadows. We are given the freedom to speak out on the changes that still need to be made and we must not give up on that work. This is why we celebrate Juneteenth.

Juneteenth is not just a Black holiday, but it is an American holiday where we all celebrate being set free from the sin of enslaving another human being. To reject this is to communicate that you’re upset that slavery finally ended in America. Think of Juneteenth as a celebration of how ALL of our ancestors played a role in cleansing the country of this horrific sin stain once and for all.

July 4th is about celebrating the freedom of our country overall! So from Juneteenth to July 4th my family celebrates LIBERATION! Here’s how we celebrate:

1. On June 19th, we set up our Juneteenth Tree in the family room with Christmas lights and an African skirt around the base (you can use any fabric, though!). The lights represent the North Star that my ancestors followed to escape to freedom. The tree represents the lynching tree where Blacks and Whites who fought for us to have equality were hung. I always teach this part of American history as if it was a battle fought by ALL of our ancestors. I try to teach my children to view it through the lens of true patriots who stood against racism, as opposed to teaching American history as Black people against White people.
2. My children then make little paper ornaments where they write the name of a person who stood against racism and slavery in this country. They hang these on the tree and we keep the tree up until July 5th.
3. We get our children 3 gifts: one chapter book that tells American history that is TRUE and talks about America’s fight to make the country free for ALL people; one t-shirt that celebrates Black history or American history that includes all of us; one gift that reflects this history, like my daughter got a Rosa Parks Barbie Doll. I got this idea after reading how a man who was set free on Juneteenth said, that he was so happy that it felt like Christmas!
4. We usually watch a documentary connected to this type of history. For example, we have watched a documentary about the life of MLK and we also watched “I am Not Your Negro” which is a documentary about James Baldwin.
5. We go to Juneteenth events and/or go to history museums in DC

All of this is done from June 19th through July 4th and it is designed to teach my children that Black history IS American history. All of our history IS American history!

Liberation Season ends with celebrating July 4th. There are some who think that we have to choose between Juneteenth and July 4th, but we celebrate both. I know some in my community struggle with my perspective on this because our ancestors were not given freedom after the Revolutionary War. The Star Spangled Banner was not written with my ancestors in mind. However, my ancestors fought in the war, hoping that maybe as the country fought for its freedom, it would desire our freedom. America’s leaders failed to acknowledge our equal humanity and right to the freedom they fought for, but even still, my ancestors are part of that history! To not celebrate July 4th is to profane their blood spilled on the battlefields of this country. Sometimes we get so bitter about America’s past and failure to keep its Constitutional promise that in rejecting its holidays, we dishonor those ancestors who were part of America’s story! We celebrate July 4th because we are now the realization of our ancestors’ dreams! After spending a night sitting watching fireworks (usually on my parents porch, because we can see at least 3 fireworks shows from their front deck overlooking the Potomac River) and eating watermelon, we place it all in perspective. We celebrate because finally this is also our home. We still have work to do, but progress has happened and we are part of that story.

We all do live in the land of the free. It has come with a heavy price. It is often inconsistent. Lives have been lost. As a country we have failed many times to live out what the Constitution promises, but with that document as our foundation, we keep fighting and doing the work. Together we have evolved and continue to evolve into a place where all of us are truly free. Liberation Season, celebrated from June 19th to July 4th is our time as a family to celebrate America’s messy, horrible, triumphant, beautiful, faltering, sinful, vigorous, and courageous fight to be the land of the free, and to honor the many lives sacrificed to make sure we all can sing “Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of Liberty!” AND “Our country tis of the sweet land of LIBERTY, of thee I sing!”