Crispus Attucks, son of an African father and a Wampanoag Indian mother, was the “first to defy and first to die” in the Boston Massacre, 1770. “The course of human events” evolved into colonists declaring their independence from a monarchy to establish a government of, and by, the people. The founders’ investment in slavery, however, did not recognize or regard Attucks’ leadership and sacrifice as a freedom fighter. The price Attucks paid for freedom ahead of European colonists did not prevent Africans from being enslaved in America.

Arguing the point that the freedom enshrined in the Declaration of Independence did not extend to Africans in America, Frederick Douglass examined the meaning of the 4th of July in an address to the Rochester Ladies’ Antislavery Society, Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852. Recounting the many indignities America had inflicted upon Africans in America, Douglas declared, “Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessing in which you, this day, rejoice is not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” American slavery was a stumbling block for African Americans to celebrate America’s Independence Day.
A little over a decade later, the evolving course of human events declared a renewed nation. Declaring release to the captives, however, is not always a widely accepted message. Whereas Gen. Robert E. Lee signed documents of surrender on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, the Confederacy did not yield to total surrender until June 19, 1865, when Union troops landed in Galveston, Texas, and declared an end to the war.

Juneteenth, a combination of June and the 19th day of the month, commemorates and celebrates the end of the War Between the States and the total emancipation of enslaved Africans in America. Hence, Juneteenth became a day of Jubilee, a day for celebrating African American freedom from slavery. I imagine those last enslaved Africans who learned freedom had finally come to their lives were like the people Zora Neal Hurston described in Moses, Man of the Mountain:

Moses heard the message sitting in his house, but he didn’t say a word right then. The news was too big to speak at once. He had to sit with his feelings for a while. Afterwards, he called his leaders to him and told them, “Your slavery is over. Pharaoh is broken at last. We march out of Egypt with a free people. We march out with a high hand.” The people cried when Moses told them. He had expected wild clamor; the sound of cymbals and exultant singing and dancing. But the people wept out of their eyes. Goshen was very still. No songs and shouts.

 

“Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last! No more toting sand and mixing mortar! No more taking rocks and building things for Pharaoh! No more whipping and bloody backs! No more slaving from can’t see in the morning to can’t see at night! Free! Free! So free till I’m foolish!”

 

They just sat with centuries in their eyes and cried. A few could express themselves like that. But the majority just sat in the doors of their dwellings, staring out at life.

Many emancipated African Americans arose from their dwellings, wiped away centuries of tears, and migrated west as testimonies of their freedom. Those “Exodusters” migrated from slavery’s dehumanizing degradation, declared their freedom from being identified as property, and staked claims on land as property to call their own. Black freed women and men incorporated all-Black towns as declarations of Black humanity. They recreated communities that were defined by dignity, integrity, and self-determination. Consequently, African Americans chose to celebrate the 19th of June rather than the 4th of July as their Emancipation Day from the American house of bondage.

Although Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, today, we still live with the question: Can all Americans celebrate Juneteenth as a day that advocates freedom? As we advocate freedom at the Iliff School of Theology, I hope everyone will take a moment to recognize that liberty in America has been an evolving realization. We stand with the many who continue to suffer dehumanizing degradation and work for all to know true freedom in this land that declares freedom and justice for all.

Sincerely,

Rev. Dr. Lee Butler, Jr.

President and CEO of Iliff School of Theology