Through our lens: Juneteenth

At the time, the Juneteenth celebration was largely regional. But by the late 1990s, you could sense that its larger moment was arriving.

Juneteenth commemorates the arrival of Union troops in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865 — more than two months after Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox — with a message of freedom for the enslaved.

Texas is but one example of how emancipation’s timeline defied chronology.

In Richmond, freedom arrived on April 3, 1865, when U.S. Colored Troops marched into the fallen capital of the Confederacy.

But in Norfolk, the date of January 1, 1863 — the effective date of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation — held special resonance.

Hampton Roads was Union-occupied, and Lincoln’s order was only meant to apply to the enslaved outside Union control. But that didn’t stop Black people from launching what would become an annual Emancipation celebration.

Tennessee was also under Union control and exempt from the proclamation. Its Emancipation Day is on August 8, commemorating the day in 1863 that Andrew Johnson — its military governor, who succeeded Lincoln as president — freed his personal slaves.

“I think that Juneteenth can symbolically represent emancipation-oriented concepts of freedom everywhere,” said Janine Bell, founding president and artistic director of the Elegba Folklore Society. “But I think that the occurrences in the various states and areas are equally important.”

For Bell, the holiday is about liberation, and much more.

“It’s a way to a way to give homage to our ancestors, who gave so much with their fortitude,” she said. It’s also a reminder of lack of equity and access still plaguing African Americans.

“We can use this holiday — this holy day, if you will — to get centered and grounded on our choices, and for the city and the community we want to create.”