The complexities of U.S. history were front and center when University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) organized a panel discussion focused on Juneteenth, the federal holiday to honor the end of slavery. The panelists deepened the discussion through an examination of what freedom means.
UMGC hosted the Juneteenth Equity Dialogue on June 18 as part of its activities linked to the holiday, which is also known as the country’s second Independence Day. Juneteenth formally commemorates June 19, 1865, the date when 250,000 enslaved Black people in the Confederate State of Texas were freed. Although the Emancipation Proclamation declared the end of slavery on Jan. 1, 1863, it took many months for the news to reach enslaved people in some areas of the country still at war.
“One of the things that was really important to me is to elevate this dialog and to have a conversation in our university community where people could ask, you know, sometimes difficult questions or think about, have a space to think about, difficult topics,” said panelist Sharon Wilder, who is UMGC vice president and chief diversity and equity officer.
Wilder joined three other panelists from the UMGC community: Lilah Blackstone, an adjunct faculty member of legal studies and political science; Damon Freeman, director and collegiate professor of history and African American Studies; and Treston Sanders, curator of the arts program.
The panelists talked about the origins of Juneteenth, the ways it is celebrated and the significance of its designation as a federal holiday. It became a holiday in 2021 under a bill signed into law by President Joe Biden.
“We're going to hear the various perspectives of its meaning from the lens of a historian, a lawyer, an artist and a DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) practitioner,” said Natasha Rodriguez in opening the event. Rodriguez is UMGC’s director of multicultural training and diversity programs.
Blackstone said that while Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, it also “represents a pivotal moment in American history.”
“I see Juneteenth is an opportunity to educate and engage with my students about some of the complexities of American history, but also [about] the impact of slavery and some of the enduring struggles against racial discrimination,” said Blackstone who, in addition to teaching at UMGC, is deputy general counsel for the District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking.
Sanders, meanwhile, characterized Juneteenth’s designation as a federal holiday as an “admission of guilt.”
“There are a lot of things that don't necessarily mark the fact that slavery happened, and Juneteenth is a self-imposed acknowledgement of this having happened,” he explained.
Freeman noted Juneteenth’s role—long before it was declared a holiday—as a grassroots celebration that expanded from Texas to other parts of the country as people moved.
“It is also important to keep in mind that the first celebration that happened in 1866 wasn't just to celebrate the end of slavery, it was also a family reunion,” Freeman said. “People advertised searches for lost relatives since they had been split up by slavery.”
At the end of the panel discussion, the panelists and audience split into breakout sessions to discuss the question “What does freedom mean to you? Blackstone said a comment made by event participant Alicia Warren during one breakout session especially resonated.
“Alicia Warren’s main point was [that] in order to make significant change, you have to change people's minds,” Blackstone said. “You have to change the way people think first. And I thought that was a great steppingstone to other parts of conversation that we had.”
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