Friday is Juneteenth, a celebration commemorating when enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, learned they’d been freed — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
It became a state holiday here in Arizona in 2016 and a federal holiday five years later.
This year’s celebration, though, comes in the context of increased racial tension. There are a few reasons for this, including concerns about congressional representation for African Americans after a Supreme Court ruling and subsequent redistricting efforts, and intensifying political rhetoric in the wake of some jury verdicts.
With all that going on, The Show spoke with Neal Lester about Juneteenth this year. He’s a professor at ASU where he teaches in the areas of African American literature and culture. He’s also the founding director of Project Humanities. And The Show asked how he’s thinking about Juneteenth this year, given where we are in the world.
Full conversation
NEAL LESTER: Well, where we are in the world — that’s a big, oceanic kind of description there, Mark. Where we are in the world. I think politically and socially, I think this is an interesting moment to be remembering why Juneteenth exists and what the emancipation of formerly enslaved people actually means in the context of what’s happening right now politically.
So I think in many ways this is more challenging than it has been in the past — particularly if we talk about when Juneteenth was acknowledged as a federal holiday in 2021 — that we seem to be miles away from that moment of acknowledging to this moment where some of the very things that people worked for in terms of equity and equality are being eroded, or have been eroded.
So I think it’s an interesting moment that lends itself to an even deeper celebration, perhaps, but certainly an acknowledgment that where we are now is not necessarily any kind of acknowledgment that freedom exists for one and all.
MARK BRODIE: Well, that seems like an interesting juxtaposition when you’re talking about maybe leaning into the celebration more when folks aren’t necessarily in a celebratory mood.
NEAL LESTER: Mmm. I don’t know that I would necessarily say that. I think in times where things seem really, really dark, that’s where people have had to reach inside, communities have had to reach inside and find joy in those moments that lead to a kind of resilience.
And I say that having just taught a class on Black anger and Black joy, and we looked at all the reasons that people would not necessarily be joyful — the violence, the all of the things — and then recognize that even in those moments of disappointment, disillusionment, disenfranchisement, that people found joy. And joy became a kind of radical act of resistance.
And I think for many, this may be one of the most robust celebrations precisely because things seem to be sort of going in a direction very different than they were in 2021, and more specifically, after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
MARK BRODIE: Is it harder to celebrate when things aren’t really what you want them to be or feel like they’re moving in the wrong direction?
NEAL LESTER: No. It is not.
MARK BRODIE: How so?
NEAL LESTER: Well, as I just said, those are the times that require that people dig deeper and find something that is more, I dare say, spiritual and something that is more sustaining than to imagine that life is like a day at Disneyland or Disney World. I think any number of us could talk about the ways in which our lives are not necessarily moving in a direction that makes us quote-unquote "happy" or even "joyful."
So I don’t think people stop existing because everything around them seems to be falling apart or crumbling. In fact, that’s a reminder that we cannot be overwhelmed by those things, but rather, how do you resist being overwhelmed by those things?
So, no, I don’t think it’s harder. I think in fact, it becomes more deliberate, more intentional, that people are saying, “OK, let’s get together so that we can remind each other that what we are experiencing will pass, and that there is hope in that.”
MARK BRODIE: I’m curious about what you think about when you look at sort of efforts to roll back, for example, DEI initiatives, and look at curricula, and even the teaching of Black history in schools. Does it make it harder to sort of understand what the past looked like and how that relates to the present and the future?
NEAL LESTER: No. And I say that because schools have not been primarily the place where African Americans have learned their histories. There have been churches, there have been social organizations, there have been fraternities and sororities, there have been community groups that have always been places where one could find what they couldn’t find in the classroom.
MARK BRODIE: So do you find it a useful exercise then — on this or really any other Juneteenth — to, while you’re celebrating, while you are joyful, to think about and maybe talk about how to try to make the things that are not the way you want them to be better? Like, is this the time for that?
NEAL LESTER: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I look at people who are using Juneteenth as an opportunity to get people registered to vote. I get people who are looking at Juneteenth and they’re giving history lessons because not everybody knows what Juneteenth is. It’s a time also to reflect on the fact that half of the states here in the United States don’t even acknowledge Juneteenth as a holiday, and it’s still not a paid holiday.
So even when the holiday became federalized, it didn’t necessarily mean that the world started throwing confetti in celebration of everything. It became commodified, commercialized. So, I think it’s a time to reflect on all of that and not look at it as an either-or.
I think also what has to be said about Juneteenth — since that’s what this is really about as a time for reflection and also challenges — is that I had not forever known about or celebrated Juneteenth in the communities that I grew up in. In fact, in my own naivete, I had assumed that why are we celebrating a holiday that really means, you know, two years after the Emancipation had been proclaimed, that these Black people in Galveston didn’t know they were free.
Well, that’s not really an accurate narrative. The narrative that makes more sense to me is that the Union Army could not go into Galveston, which was the last sort of stake hole who didn’t want to give up on their role as enslavers. They had to be militarily forced to do it, and that some of those freed Black men joined the Union Army and were able to go in and militarily make this happen.
And so, I think when one knows that and one sees, for example, what comes out of these moments that have been most oppressive, these moments that have been most disenfranchising for folks, people have found ways to continue to live. Juneteenth isn’t this segregated holiday. It’s an opportunity for people to look at this country — particularly as lots of things are being mounted for the celebration of the 250th — to sort of revisit Frederick Douglass’ speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Just revisit that.
MARK BRODIE: How would you like Arizonans who are not Black to be thinking about Juneteenth or thinking about sort of some of these issues that we’ve been discussing?
NEAL LESTER: Well, I’m not a pharmacist, so I don’t like to prescribe things. What I would like to do is to have everybody sort of acknowledge what does this day mean in U.S. history, and how do we assess who and what we are as in our shared humanity. That’s the part that I want us to look at.
I want us to look at, first of all, why do we have a Juneteenth, and what is it about the past that is still connected and informing the present?
And those, you don’t have to wait until Juneteenth to do that. I just think Juneteenth is just a moment where people can sort of collectively come together and name a moment, just like Kwanzaa does or just like any other holiday does. You don’t have to, you know, it’s an anniversary of a birthday, you don’t have to wait to celebrate people on that day and then the day after that you’re not thinking anything else about it.
There’s a way in which this could be a reminder that every day should be Juneteenth or every day should be a birthday. I know it can’t be fireworks all the time, but it can at least be awareness, though. And so I guess my hope — rather than a prescription — is that people will use this as a time to reflect, but also a time to decide exactly what actions they’re going to do to address the things that don’t seem to be in line with this ideal of America as it was created by those who didn’t necessarily found the country, because folks were already here.
So there are all kinds of opportunities for reflection, but also for some action. Connect with groups who are doing work that you think aligns with your values, and challenge those things that aren’t.
MARK BRODIE: All right. Neal Lester, thank you so much for the conversation. I really appreciate it.
NEAL LESTER: Thank you very much.
