This Friday, the National Civil Rights Museum (NCRM), along with five other African-American museums and historic institutions, will host a series of online panel discussions, story time, and performances for the entire family to enjoy. This online celebration will be published on blkfreedom.org at 11 a.m. as part of the museums’ memberships with the Association of African American Museums to commemorate Juneteenth, a nationally recognized holiday that celebrates the day that the Emancipation Proclamation was enforced, ending slavery in Texas.
On June 19, 1875, Major General Gordon Granger landed in Galveston, Texas, with news that the war had ended and that slaves were free. This occurred more than two and a half years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Declaration.
Before COVID-19, NCRM typically celebrated this holiday by focusing on outreach with children through its Small But Mighty Storytime series with a reading of Floyd Cooper’s educational book Juneteenth for Mazie, along with activities and discussions about the concept of freedom. Although NCRM can’t gather with children directly this year, they have contributed a pre-recorded reading of the book for children to enjoy from home.
“It's a moment for us to really refocus on how we got to this particular moment,” says Dr. Noelle Trent, director of interpretation, collections, and education for NCRM. “Our contribution is to bring in story time by our museum educator, Dory Lerner, who reads the book and shows kids why it's celebrated, things that you can do to celebrate Juneteenth, and why it’s so meaningful for the African American community.”
During the 90-minute program, children and families will also be able to enjoy performances by singers, dancers, and spoken-word artists, as well as panel discussions featuring special guest speakers, that were put together by all participating museums which include Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (Detroit, MI), Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park (Hill Head Island, SC), Northwest African American Museum (Seattle, WA), Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater (Miami, FL), and National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (Cincinnati, OH).
NCRM and Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park teamed up on a pre-recorded panel discussion featuring conversations with Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens, professor in history of medicine and director of humanities in the medicine program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries, associate professor in history at Ohio State University.
“Both of them have done a lot of work in African American history,” says Trent. “We had those two in conversation with each other and talked about the meaning of freedom then and now. How did that evolve? And what should Juneteenth look like in 2020? How should we celebrate? What's the meaning of that celebration in this moment?”
Other panel discussions will feature conversations with Lonnie G. Bunch III, the first African American and first historian to serve as the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; Dr. Johnetta Betsch Cole, anthropologist, educator, museum director, and the first female African-American president of Spelman College; and Carla Hayden, librarian of Congress, the first woman and the first African American to lead the national library.
“This day is an opportunity to celebrate the end of slavery. It's an opportunity to celebrate this community's survival, to celebrate the way that they persevered through these things, and it has a level of patriotism to it,” says Trent. “June 19th is especially prominent in part of the southwest of this country, but it's evolved now to become a national moment to reflect and to celebrate the liberation of a people from bondage. And that's what kids can really take from it, but it's also an opportunity for kids to understand that, yes, slavery ended, but there are still injustices that we face. And so there's still some work that we need to do.”