“The holiday is important to reflect on freedom and reflect on who we are as a nation and who we want to be as a nation,” a museum curator explains. FOX13
Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration of the end of slavery in the United States.This weekend the nation will take a moment to honor Juneteenth, a symbolic moment in American history.
"We’re getting to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding. The paradox is that the nation is based on liberty but founded on slavery," Elliot says. "The 1852 slave act regardless of where you stayed the slave had to return to the enslaver. This day is also a moment that marks Black freedom and what it meant for this nation to grant freedom to everyone. It wasn’t until the 13th amendment was passed and ended slavery in the nation.
"It’s important to celebrate who we are as a people, coming out of the bondage of slavery, a moment to think about who we were and who we want to be, and to make sure equality is being manifested." "Juneteenth should be both, we should always celebrate freedom, but it’s a serious moment that should be commemorated because the nation was founded on slavery, and what are our moral obligations and how do we tell an inclusive history?"