Juneteenth, Sombre and Celebratory

When every heart joins
every heart
and together yearns for liberty,
That's when we'll be free!
When every hand joins
every hand
and together moulds our destiny,
That's when we'll be free.
Any hour
any day,
the time soon will come when
[all] will live in dignity...

Hymn to Freedom -- Oscar Peterson 

 I wished Isaac, our son, a Happy Ike-teenth this morning on the occasion of his birthday. This was a Dad Joke allusion to Juneteenth, a hugely important anniversary in the United States. I'll share the opening paragraphs of an co-authored opinion piece in the Washington Post from a year ago. You'll see that one of the writers is a pastor, a reminder that the issues of Black emancipation and equality have always been spiritual as well as political.  

Opal Lee, an educator and activist known as “the grandmother of Juneteenth,” is a board member of Unity Unlimited. DeForest “Buster” Soaries is pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens, N.J., and a board member of the Stand Together Foundation. They are co-chairs of the Heal America movement, which is launching the “Summer of Healing” on June 19.

Juneteenth is more than a holiday. It is not just a commemoration of the end of slavery. It is a day that celebrates America’s incredible capacity to self-correct by applying the timeless principles at our country’s core. Yet as we prepare to mark Juneteenth’s second year as a federal holiday, we have to ask: Will we let this celebration fall prey to the division and distraction that are tearing America down? Or will we embrace its true meaning, commit to ending the injustices that surround us, and ultimately lift America up?

By all rights, Juneteenth should be a day of great unity. When the enslaved people of Galveston, Tex., were told of their freedom on June 19, 1865, the promise of America became much more real and attainable. It was hardly the end of all injustice, but it was the end of one of the country’s original injustices. That’s why generations of Black Americans made June 19 into a long-standing holiday. What could be more American than remembering the forward march of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?...

...Those who made Juneteenth what it is today would be the first to say this holiday is not an event; it’s an invitation.

While Juneteenth is an American commemoration the principles apply here in Canada as well. I've included a verse from Hymn to Freedom, written by Canadian jazz great Oscar Peterson. It was sung often during the Civil Rights Movement in the US and to this day. 

                                Martin Luther King in Windsor, Ontario on Emancipation Day, 1956