‘What does it mean to be free in 2023?’: Michiana celebrates Juneteenth

 

Monday is Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day, Freedom Day, and other names. It signifies the day, back on June 19, 1865, when the last of the slaves in America were freed.  

That was roughly two years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to free all slaves in the country. But it wasn’t until 2020 that Juneteenth finally became a federal holiday.  

All across Michiana, groups are celebrating this day of freedom.  

In Elkhart, organizer Antwon Williams kicked off their annual Juneteenth celebration at Roosevelt Center Park with the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”  

“I feel this is our true Freedom Day,” Williams said, “and it honestly needs to be just as big as out other day of freedom that we celebrate.”  

“Juneteenth means freedom, it means unity, it means community,” he continued. 

Over in Mishawaka, the Saint Joseph Health System honored the holiday with a “Strides for Freedom Walk.”  

“It is important because we still need to remember that slavery did exist," said Latorya Greene, director of community health and wellbeing for Saint Joseph. “We have to understand that not all slaves were freed with the Emancipation Proclamation. It did take about two years after the Emancipation Proclamation for all slaves to be free.”   

The holiday serves as a reflection on how far we've come.  

“We still need to make sure we have the conversation,” Greene said. “Have the understanding that there are still injustices are happening in this world, but then also for us to reflect and pause and really highlight the African American community and the culture, and the great achievements that the community has had for our country as well.” 

The holiday is also a reflection on how far we need to go. 

Darryl Heller is the director of Indiana University South Bend’s Civil Rights Heritage Center. At Monday’s walk, he wore a short that read “from enslavement to mass incarceration.” 

“I purposely wore this T-shirt today, ‘from slavery to mass incarceration,’ because the chains that go from slavery to our present, all of them aren’t broken yet,” Heller said. “Enslavement to mass incarceration is but one manifestation of that.”