Hello, and happy summer! As I look back at my first year at Marquette, I marvel at our students’ service to Milwaukee and reflect on what it means to be socially responsible. It includes a commitment to the environment, kindness toward others and being engaged in the community. As I celebrate wins, consider how to disseminate what I’ve learned and plan for the year ahead, the timing could not be better.
I am thankful my first colossal Juneteenth celebration was right here in Milwaukee, umpteen years ago in the Harambe neighborhood, blocks from my home. Milwaukee’s Juneteenth jubilee is one of the largest in the U.S. As I think back to those festivities, I remind myself why we recognize June 19th — why it is critical to be in community, why it is essential to educate ourselves and others, why joy is necessary!
On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and delivered a proclamation that had been law for two and a half years: enslaved people were free. The Emancipation Proclamation had been signed in January 1863, but the machinery of ardent ignorance kept this truth from thousands of enslaved people. When word finally spread after having been actively suppressed, the response was justifiable anger and elation — people gathered and let out a joyful noise.
That joy is the heartbeat, the bass, the drum, the rhythm, the constant of Juneteenth.
Although it is important that we hold both truths at once, Juneteenth asks us to reckon honestly with cruelty and injustice, then and now. It prompts us to reflect on hard-won freedoms, those who fought for them and those who did not live to see them. Recognize the state of things today, how far we’ve come, and how far we’ve yet to go. Reverence and grief are intertwined and belong there. And so does celebration — exuberant, unapologetic celebration of resilience, survival, connection and the tenacity of the human spirit.
Here in the “City of Festivals,” our Juneteenth celebration is a testament to the solemnity, connection and jubilation the day demands. It draws thousands of community members and volunteers for art, connection, education, food, music and remembrance. Maybe I will see you and other Marquette community members there along Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. While the festivities practically happen in my neighborhood, I also think of the many people I have called friend or neighbor along the way who know little about this cause for celebration, this just anniversary.
This year, Juneteenth arrives with added resonance. Just two weeks later, the U.S. will mark its 250th anniversary. It is also an opportunity for community, celebration and contemplation; reflection on promises made, those kept and those not, unrealized aspirations and the persistent gaps in communication. Juneteenth shines a light on the 250th. It illuminates that the story of American freedom is woefully incomplete without the story of freedom for the enslaved. It asks us to celebrate a fuller, more hopeful truth: that the U.S. has been and continues to be made freer by people who refuse to accept anything less than justice.
At Marquette, we are called to be people for and with others, e.g., to pursue justice, to build beloved community and to recognize the inherent dignity of every person. Embrace, educate and serve others like our neighbors at America’s Black Holocaust Museum and the Bronzeville Center for the Arts. Juneteenth is an invitation to do exactly that. Celebrate freely. Reflect deeply. And let this day move you toward the work that makes freedom real for everyone.
Joyfully, and Happy Juneteenth,
Warren
