Northeastern honored Juneteenth with a campus event reflecting on freedom, justice and the continued fight for equity and belonging.
The Northeastern University community celebrated Juneteenth with a multigenerational discussion at the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute on the Boston campus.
The event on Wednesday explored the modern-day meaning of the holiday and reflected on freedom, justice and what it means to move forward in unity.
Welcoming attendees, Northeastern Chancellor and Senior Vice President for Learning Ken Henderson said Juneteenth represents a celebration of freedom and a reminder of how long justice had been delayed for many Americans.
“For us, that’s important because it aligns with what we do as a university — that is the creation of knowledge, the dissemination of knowledge. That’s part of what we’re all gathered here to do today — to reflect, think, share on what we know about Juneteenth, how it matters to us individually and what it collectively means for us as a community,” Henderson said. “Understanding our past and our history, where we’ve come from, hopefully helps us to chart a new and better future for us all.”
Juneteenth, a federal holiday in the United States, commemorates June 19, 1865 — the day Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, at the end of the Civil War to announce that enslaved people were free. This came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.
Northeastern also recognizes Juneteenth as a university holiday, Henderson said, and marks its significance by flying the Juneteenth flag over Centennial Common.
Students from the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science attended the discussion with Northeastern students, faculty and staff.
Juneteenth represents the ongoing determination of Black people to claim their place in society, said Richard O’Bryant, Northeastern’s chief inclusion and belonging officer and director of the university’s John D. O’Bryant African American Institute.
“The holiday reminds us that true belonging isn’t just about being present. It’s about truly feeling free to be your authentic self,” O’Bryant said. “The holiday celebrates freedom to build, to create, to grow and to thrive.”
Juneteenth challenges Americans to recognize where freedom and belonging are still lacking, O’Bryant said, and encourages action toward a more inclusive future. Achieving that future, he said, requires stronger connections across differences, lifting up diverse voices and creating spaces where everyone can succeed.
Belonging is created by daily practice of seeing each other, O’Bryant said, celebrating each other and supporting one another’s full humanity.
Deborah Jackson, managing director of Northeastern’s Center for Law, Equity and Race, reminded the audience of the key historical facts and dates that led to the events of June 19, 1865.
Juneteenth represents the ongoing fight for justice and equity, Jackson said, noting that Africans and their descendants had long resisted slavery and pursued freedom well before Union troops arrived to announce emancipation to 250,000 enslaved people in Texas.
“The delay in implementing the proclamation was the absence of any mechanism to enforce it,” Jackson said.
But Black people fought for their freedom for nearly 200 years by jumping overboard on slave ships, fighting to gain control of the ships, slipping away from plantations and engaging in open resistance.
“There are some who refer to Juneteenth as the real beginning of independence and democracy in America, although there are still significant challenges to the concept of a meaningful democracy in terms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all,” Jackson said.
Today, Black Americans are again being called upon to stand up and fight for basic rights, she said.
“If due process can be denied to some groups of people, there is nothing to prevent it from being denied to all of us,” Jackson said. “So today, as we commemorate and celebrate Juneteenth, let us recognize that it came out of a struggle and a celebration of freedom.
“But let us also continue to find and fight for ways to ensure that the freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness so eloquently proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence is available for all people and not for some.”
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The Rev. Keith Bagley, an associate clinical professor at Northeastern, shared with the audience his thoughts on knowledge and power.
“Knowledge is power,” he said. “The righteous application of power brings freedom.”
Growing up in New York, Bagley said, he didn’t learn about the history of Juneteenth until he was in his 30s.
“It reminds me that nothing is necessarily given over to us by people who have bad intentions,” he said. “People will always try to oppress others if they can get away with it, if their heart’s not right.”
Bagley said there was a gap between the ideals of Independence Day and the reality in the U.S. until all enslaved people were emancipated — and that the struggle for true freedom and equality for Black Americans continues today.
“We’re asking for a level playing field,” he said. “That’s what Juneteenth represents, to a certain extent, as well as making that gap a little bit smaller day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, so that as we go forward, we can go forward together with a shared history, recognizing the good, the bad, the ugly, but always pressing forward in oneness.”
Students and guests from the John D. O’Bryant School joined the discussion, reflecting on Texas slaveholders’ defiance of emancipation, the censorship of knowledge, the connection between education and oppression, and the importance of honoring ancestors.