I often try to wrap my mind around what it was like when the Union Army arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, to inform the more than quarter-million enslaved Black people in the state of their freedom — two years and six months after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.
“All slaves are free,” the announcement, known as General Order No. 3, proclaims. What did it mean for Black people to be “free” back then? Obviously, the chains and shackles were put away, but what did the former slaves think? How did they imagine their prospects? What would it take to make a living starting from nothing, with nothing.
On top of that, freedom came with strings attached. The less cited text in General Order No. 3 states: “… and the connection heretofore existing between [former masters and slaves] becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freed are advised to remain at their present homes and work for wages.” Being told to continue working for their “former masters,” under the continuing threat of violence and intimidation, undoubtedly diminished the meaning of freedom.
Since that day of reckoning in 1865, of being awarded freedom diluted with continuing deprivation and humiliation, Black people have made significant contributions in every field of human endeavor in the United States — in business, medicine, science, technology, sports, arts, and entertainment. Once freedom was granted, we did not “remain quietly” at the plantations of our enslavers.
Yet, our freedom remains tenuous. The freedom to birdwatch in a park. To jog in a neighborhood. To fall asleep in a college dorm. To ring a doorbell. To water a neighbor’s flowers. Such humble liberties cannot be taken for granted if you are Black. It has proven dangerous for a Black child in America to play with a toy gun, knock on a neighbor’s door, recreate in a field, or kill invasive lanternflies with a homemade bug spray. These are terrifying prospects for Black parents.
We are not alone in wrestling with what it means to be free. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution grants us all five basic freedoms: Free speech, a free press, religious liberty, the right to assemble, and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. In our complex times, these radical freedoms are in conflict. How can we protect and preserve freedom of speech when words on a screen can incite violence? How can we ensure a free press when the line between news and entertainment is blurred? How do we balance religious liberty in the workplace with the rights of others whose personal choices or lifestyles transgress some religious tenants? How do we square the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms with sending children to schools free of the threat of gun violence?
Freedom is a work in progress, as more than a quarter-million Black people learned on June 19, 1865. On this Juneteenth, let us all celebrate the incredible things that Black people have accomplished, starting from nothing, with nothing. But let us not abdicate the important work that remains for every American to ensure we are all truly free.
