Nassau County celebrates Juneteenth, America’s true Independence Day

Last Saturday, Nassau County organized a large outdoor celebration at Clark Botanic Garden, in Albertson, in collaboration with the African American Museum of Nassau County, in recognition of Juneteenth, when the chains of slavery were officially broken.

On June 19, 1865, when Union Army Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to spread the news of freedom across the enslaved population — some two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, ended slavery.

Nassau County Legislator Siela Bynoe, the event’s main organizer, explained the importance of celebrating Juneteenth in the communities she represents, and acknowledged the important work that still needs to be done. “I represent a community that has the roots of this experience,” Bynoe said, “and so this is an opportunity for us to come together, commemorate and reflect on how far we’ve come, and that we have further to go.”

Bynoe also emphasized the importance of understanding “the experiences of our ancestors from 150 years ago.” Her goal, she said, was to use the event as an opportunity to celebrate freedom and liberation, while also fostering economic development, and embracing cultural experiences and elements such as food and dance.

The festivities did just that, featuring performances by the Uniondale High School Show Choir and the Everton Bailey and the Instrumental Sounds of Praise, as well as poets and other speakers; a plethora of local vendors and booths selling food and merchandise; and a kiddie corner offering games, crafts and inflatables.

“There was a time when they wouldn’t let us do this — they wouldn’t let us play music,” Everton Bailey, the leader of the youth ensemble, said, “because they knew we communicated through the drums.”

“We are our ancestors’ wildest dreams,” said Chukwuma Garvey Ukwu, the owner of two businesses, Historically Black Wall Street, and VISION — which stands for Vivid Informative System Inspiring Our Nation — a clothing line. “There are those that never would have thought, in a million years, that we, the descendants of once enslaved people, would be able to not only participate in entrepreneurship and the economy, but that we would be empowered enough to grow and continue to build on holidays and events like this that celebrate our people and all that we have been through, and continue to go through.”

Lorna Simpson, a guest speaker and a member of the service sorority Delta Sigma Theta, explained that Juneteenth represents more than just the abolishment of slavery — it signifies the years of oppression and delaying of rights and justice that Black people in the United States have had to suffer.

“Unfortunately, even after slavery ended, after emancipation finally took hold throughout the South,” Simpson said, “Jim Crow laws were implemented, and unjust imprisonment, lynching and many other violent acts ensued against African Americans in retaliation for this new reality.”

Simpson said that Juneteenth is celebrated with “gleeful merriment,” but people need to understand that freedom is not to be taken lightly. “Our ancestors are always to be remembered, because the wealth of this country was built on their backs,” she said, adding that although it is a joyous occasion, Juneteenth reminds us of a dark period in our history and the long, continuing struggle toward equality for all people. “If one of us is in bondage,” she said, “then none of us are truly free.”