When the first anniversary of American independence was celebrated, the US still did not recognise Black people’s liberty, so Juneteenth became our celebration of freedom, such that it is. It marks the end of slavery in the US, and I have celebrated this day for most of my adult life. It’s a time of communion; of red drinks (to symbolise bloodshed) and soul food. And for me, it symbolises the community and the endurance of Black people over the past 400 years, across slavery and decades of injustices.
On 19 June 1865 in Galveston, Texas, Union soldiers delivered the news to the enslaved that the Civil War had ended and they were now free. That this came two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation first promised freedom is one of many tragedies. We
