Shively T. J. Smith, Associate Professor of New Testament; Director, PhD program
What is in a day? June 19 is an American haunting of sorts. It is an eerie reminder of how even when freedom, citizenship, and access are supposedly granted, they can be denied or, at the very least, delayed. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863, but it took 2.5 years, June 19, 1865, for those enslaved in Texas to know of their freedom. I can’t help but ponder how uncertain freedom and citizenship must have felt among the African American enslaved masses embracing with celebration their newly declared freedom. I take a breath and realize the same tentativeness remains. I hope today encourages you to consider how your theological beliefs—your God Talk—”talk back” to such fragility and proclaim, “Each of us is a collage piece making up the images of God. We are necessary. We deserve dignity. We should fight for the freedom that ensures thriving for all in this life and the life to come.”
Joshua Lawrence Lazard (’25), PhD candidate
While Juneteenth reminds me of the past, it stands as a testament to there being Black folk in the future of this nation. Although a newly recognized holiday in this country, Juneteenth joins the ranks of holidays celebrated by humans worldwide. As a holiday—a holy day—Juneteenth captures the celebration of emancipation, the lament of enslavement, and a recognition of changing seasons as the sun shines near its apex in the northern hemisphere. The prayers of unnamed ancestors allow me to celebrate this holiday in the spirit of hope; a hope that works against data and conventional wisdom. Likewise, the prayers of known ancestors named Dempsey and Mathilda, Jansia and Maggie were able to be uttered as the answered prayers to a previous generation that never saw emancipation. So on this Juneteenth, I too will pray in the spirit of my ancestors for future generations, hoping that freedom and liberty in mind, body, and soul will one day be a finished testimony for the descendants of enslaved Africans in this country.
Andrew E. Kimble (’19), Director of Lifelong Learning; Associate Director of Alumni & Donor Relations; Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
In recent years, Juneteenth celebrations have spread across the country and world, inviting us all to mentally return to those plantations, those sites of torture, humiliation and immense perseverance, to attempt grasping what it was like for our ancestors to learn about the Emancipation Proclamation for the first time. Did they see it coming? Was the news a fulfillment of some expectant, prophetic dream, some clandestine whisper, some shared hope? And when it arrived, did it relieve the tension in their bones, the sorrow and fury in their hearts, and all the agony of loss? What did they make of it—that the violence, degradation, and subordination was over? For a moment, maybe. Maybe! What we’ve learned is the chasm between their (our) proclaimed freedom and experience of it was far too wide to be closed in a day, in a decade, or even centuries. Today we’re still caught in the chasm—racial profiling, redlining, poverty, and mass incarceration—forever striving to shrink it… until freedom is fully realized!