Why I’m celebrating Juneteenth.

Juneteenth, in my mind, is the most natural and American of all holidays for us to celebrate. That is comes so close to the 4th of July seems providential. For those unaware, Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in America were told they were free. Yes, the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863, but it took until June 19, 1865 for the Union Army to arrive in Galveston, Texas and inform the last remaining Confederate holdouts of the order.

I was born, like many of you, into the blessings of freedom and American citizenship. Thanks, in no small part, to my ancestors. Many who came here from Europe for a better life, and some who moved west along the Trail of Tears from Alabama, likely clinging to the hope of restoring some sense of freedom to their family’s life. All of whom sought freedom from something, and I am quite certain valued their liberty.

As a family historian, I’ve had the benefit of reading stories, letters and documents from many of my ancestors. In Westchester County, NY my ancestors had their land seized as Union Loyalists after the Revolutionary War and sought refuge in Canada. Eventually they were granted lands north of Toronto by the Crown. The letters they wrote back to family and friends in St. John, N.B. warning them of the perilous journey and the terrible conditions they lived in, and begging them not to come, are heartbreaking.

All of my family history reminds me of the value of freedom and the hardships so many have endured to enjoy it. And that they did endure it is the only reason I sit here in freedom today. They paid for that privilege.

I can only imagine the joy that must have come over every enslaved person present in Galveston on June 19, 1865 when they learned they were free. And like all Americans, they then had to decide what they wanted to hope for and how they were going to move forward. The choices they all made, and the hardships they all endured, paid for the liberty and freedom their ancestors enjoy today as well.

Juneteenth is not just about the freedom of enslaved African Americans. It’s about the freedom of all Americans and the belief in the mighty words that founded our nation and remain a shining beacon for the entire world — that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

As Americans, by birth or by choice, we have an obligation to those who came before us — whether free, aboriginal, migrant or enslaved — to continue the fight for freedom. And we have an ongoing obligation to continue their hard work to ensure that any one of us is never any less free than the other.

So nothing seems more fitting, or more appropriate, than to celebrate the freedom of America and all Americans from Juneteenth through July 4th, and to remind each other that freedom wasn’t true freedom until all of us were free.