Community members gathered at the Historic Douglass High School in Leesburg on Monday to raise the Juneteenth flag and reflect on the impact of the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil Rights movement.
The ceremony included remarks by Hazekiah Watkins, who became the youngest Freedom Rider following his arrest at age 13 during a protest at a Jackson, MS, bus station. He was released after 13 days in jail, thanks to the intervention of the Kennedy administration, but he was not spared his mother’s rod when he returned home.
In the ensuing years as a Freedom Rider fighting to enforce the Supreme Court’s ruling banning segregated buses, he was arrested more than 100 times.
“I’m proud to stand here and tell you all about those arrests, because believe it or not, what the Freedom Riders did in Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, guess what—it affected all of you,” he said.
Today he is 77 years old and he urged others in the crowd to continue the fight for equality.
“To the younger generation, I want to pass this on to you all and let you all take this and run with it. Do what you’re calling has called you to do. Any of us can make a difference if we want to. We have to want to make a difference,” he said. “They call it having a choice. We all have a choice depending on how we use it. So if you want to make a difference in your community, in your state, in your school, in your church, those are choices that you have to make.”
Community members gathered at the Historic Douglass High School in Leesburg on June 2, 2025, to raise the Juneteenth flag and reflect on the impact of the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil Rights movement. Freedom Rider Hezekiah Watkins was the keynote speaker.
The flag raising ceremony comes in advance of the Juneteenth national holiday that, this year will mark 160 years since 2,000 Union troops landed in Galveston Bay, TX, to announce that the more than 250,000 enslaved people in the state were free by President Abraham Lincoln’s executive order—two and a half years earlier.
The ceremony included a welcome by Leesburg Mayor Kelly Burk, a reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by Councilmember Neil Steinberg, a 13th Amendment to the Constitution by Rock Ridge High School senior James Wyllie, and General Order #3, which was posted on the door of the “colored church,” now known as Reedy Chapel, in Galveston Bay.
Burk spoke to students gathered for the program and encouraged them to continue to fight for justice.
“It’s been our young adults who have led the charge to great and positive change. It’s because of the young people that things have happened. This is especially true during the Civil Rights era, and with many of our young adults participating in sit ins or other forms of peaceful activism. Even locally, it was two of our own teenagers, Gertrude Evans and her brother Jean Ashton, who staged a protest in 1963 to encourage the Tally Ho Theater to desegregate. They were joined by other local teenagers, and it was a huge success, as the Tally Ho would then immediately go on to desegregate.”
“The point I want to make is that you’re never too young to make a difference,” Burk said. “I think the fact that you’re here today being part of this ceremony and studying African American Studies gives you the opportunity to learn from those who have gone before you on how to make your voice heard and to fight for what is right. Juneteenth gives us the opportunity to celebrate freedom, but we also must use this occasion to continue to fight for the freedoms that we that are not enjoyed by all. I encourage all of you here today just to look for ways to serve your community, look to see if there’s injustices that you can correct and things that you can do be part of the change.”
County Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) emphasized that Juneteenth is not just an African-American celebration.
“This is really important—most of the people in this crowd are people of color, and I get that, and I understand that, but what I want everyone to understand is that Juneteenth is not a Black holiday. Juneteenth is a national holiday, and just like the whole country celebrates the Fourth of July, the whole country should celebrate Juneteenth,” she said. “When Mayor Burk said to you all think of something to do, go back and do something different, I want you to go back and tell your counterparts who may not look like you, who may not have the exact same melanin as you, or no melanin at all, what Juneteenth is. And when we get to Juneteenth this year and the Juneteenth celebrations, I want you young people to bring your friends with you, because it’s not just enough that you know the story of Juneteenth and what it is, your friends have to know that, too.”
Steve Williams, president of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation, continued that theme.
“Juneteenth is an American holiday. It’s not a choice between the Fourth of July and Juneteenth. That’s like a choice between freedom and liberty. You can’t have one without the other,” Williams said.
“The Fourth of July freed the land from the tyranny of British control. Juneteenth freed everybody from the tyranny of slavery,” he said. “To be prejudiced, to be racist is to be un-American. It’s not Black history or African American history; it’s American history. From the very first day in 1619 when those 20 some odd Africans landed, all the way up until today, our contributions have been significant. We are an integral part of the American story.”
In Loudoun County, the Juneteenth ceremony will be held from 10 a.m. to noon June 19 starting at the Charles Hamilton Houston Courthouse. The program includes a march to the Orion Anderson Lynching Memorial.
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