Celebrating Juneteenth And The Path Of Growth

I started commemorating and celebrating Juneteenth with a great sense of heart in the 1980’s after I moved to Austin, Texas to practice law. That’s when I first learned about the holiday. Based on recent events that have yet again – and understandably – risen to worldwide protests, I wish it had been sooner… As of 2020, it seems more imperative than ever to truly embrace it.

As of 2021, I update this post, to acknowledge my gratitude there has been more growth on the path: Juneteenth has been made a federal holiday in the U.S.

I grew up in northern Ohio in a small town that was part of the Underground Railroad. That gave me a great sense of pride, but we had only one African-American family in the entire town – along with one Jewish family and two or three immigrant families (one of which was mine).

I felt a kindred sense of the “otherness” that people of color feel, but sadly it wasn’t until much later that I realized how little of their experience I really understood. While proud to know my town supported a path to freedom, there needed to be a much stronger path of growth to true equality. My own differences from the prevailing culture were protected by the segregation of white privilege, so I recognized these important parts of history in the vacuum of a too homogeneous life and professional path. What I learned from my friends of different races since is how much of a loss that was to me.

In 2021, the nation learned about another little known event in history – the massacre of people in Black Wall Street, Tulsa, Oklahoma. That was a revelation to so many. So much of it was hidden by the victims out  of fear and because the perpetrators didn’t want to acknowledge the travesty at all. Uncovering it uncovered many more similar tragic events that happened around the U.S. as well.

Being devoted to my own personal and professional growth – which led to my work as a Coach to help others grow in their work and life – I realized how having friends and colleagues from a variety of races and ethnic backgrounds has enriched my life immeasurably. I wish experiencing more of that had come sooner, too…

Serendipitously, I came to understand that the recognition of Juneteenth is also a celebration of tremendous growth. Maybe just a little more in 2021 – clearly not yet enough.

So, I want to share a broader history of that combination, as a small bit of a contribution to this holiday again this year. Hopefully, it will encourage you to enrich your personal and professional growth, too, with efforts to experience and promote greater diversity and inclusion.

The History of Juneteenth

Let’s just start right off with the connection of this day to personal development.

“Juneteenth,” also called Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, according to the National Juneteenth Register, is a holiday to celebrate “African American freedom and achievement while encouraging continuous self-development and respect for all cultures.”

How beautiful is that?!

This statement commemorates the freeing of enslaved people who built much of the infrastructure of these United States. Through their own unrecognized achievements and continuous self-development also came respect for all cultures – a recommendation filled with hope. Wow.

That those enslaved human beings and their descendants could maintain that hope – and dignity – then and now, is an amazing feat in itself.

Among that number, let’s also recognize and give sincere thanks to Opal Lee, the 94 years young, incredibly strong woman who once walked from Texas to Washington D.C. on her decades-long fight to make Juneteenth a national holiday.

Texas Illustrates

President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect officially on Jan. 1, 1863. However, 2½ years later, Texas still enslaved African-Americans. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on Texans because there were too few Union troops to enforce the executive order ending slavery.

And enforcement was needed because that proclamation upset the structural and systemic racism that had developed in the U.S.

The 2½ year lag for implementation in Texas included explanations ranging from a “they killed the messenger” story, to one that information was deliberately withheld to maintain labor forces allowing for one last cotton harvest.

The actual reason is unknown – but suffice it to say that life at the time, just a little more than 150 years ago, was significantly supported by the slavery status quo. (That’s only 3-5 generations, depending on how you measure it…)

The Texas story clearly illustrates the foundationally racist systems and structures on which this country was build.

Let’s go back a little and take a look:

• In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, remember? He captained an armada for Spain to discover the “new world.”
• Fast forward to 1528.
• On November 6, 1528 Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his companions became the first known Europeans to set foot on the shores of what is present-day Texas.
• People of African descent, enslaved and free, arrived in 1528 as well, in what became Spanish Texas. They were instrumental in its settlement through the 1600’s and 1700’s. They included both free and enslaved black and mixed-race people, as interracial marriage was legal and not unusual. Though occupying the lower end of a racial categorization structure, some African and mixed-race people were able to ascend it by gaining wealth and prestige through their labor.
• After 11 years of revolution, Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821. Under independent Mexican rule, slavery was officially outlawed in formerly Spanish Texas by 1829.
• However, under that system of rule, the Anglos who had settled there were allowed to keep their slaves. So, the enslaved population of Texas continued to grow. By the time that clashes with the Mexican government led to the Texas Revolution in 1835, more than 5,000 enslaved people lived in Texas.
• After Texas independence from Mexico, the structures underlying African American life were shaped by new and existing systems including legal constraints, enslavement, and violence.
• Then, a new system called the Texas Constitution of 1836, gave more protection to slaveholders, creating new slave codes to control the lives of enslaved people, and further shaping the structures of life at the time. Texas became a state in 1845 and the Texas Legislature continued to pass increasingly restrictive laws governing the lives of free blacks – including a law banishing all free black people from the Republic of Texas.

Whoa, what?

Did somebody say you were free? After 300+ years, oh, well, nope. Not even you, not anymore…

Free blacks struggled with new laws banning them from residence in the state, while the majority of black Texans remained enslaved.

Then in 1861, Texas voted to secede, and join the confederate states that fought to own other human beings as slaves. Progress reversed.

Overcoming Resistance To The Emancipation Proclamation

The structures and systems supporting the existence of slavery have been slow to undo. I would argue, and many would agree, we are not done yet.

Texas ‘officially’ returned to the union of United States in 1863 when the Civil War ended and the proclamation was signed, but it took until June 19, 1865 for the end of slavery to begin there.

Word of that development came to Texas when Major General Gordon Granger led union soldiers to Galveston, Texas with news of the war’s end and that the enslaved were now free. In other words, his military forces were strong enough to overcome resistance to the Emancipation Proclamation – so that ‘development’ could be enforced.

By the end of 1865, the 13th amendment of the U.S. Constitution was ratified and the practice of involuntary slavery was forever banned in the United States.

So June 19, 1865, could be seen as the true end of the Civil War. Hence the combination of June + Nineteeth, became the celebration of “Juneteenth.”

Celebrations of Juneteenth by freed slaves began in 1866, at some risk of retribution for it. The day was first celebrated in Austin in 1867 under the auspices of the Freedmen’s Bureau. In 1872, it was listed on a “calendar of public events.”  That year black leaders in Texas also raised $1,000 for the purchase of 10 acres of land to celebrate Juneteenth. That land is now Houston’s Emancipation Park.

It wasn’t until 1979 that Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth an official holiday. Today 46 of the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have recognized Juneteenth as either a state holiday or ceremonial holiday, that is, a day of observance. (In case you are wondering, the four states that do not recognize Juneteenth are Hawaii, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana.)

Juneteenth And Support For YOUR Personal Growth

With that trip through history, here’s an important point for everyone:

the struggles that led to this celebration of freedom are
an example of and support for
pursuing your own continued personal growth

Seriously. Take that on.

After all, a part of this holiday is to encourage continuous self-development and respect for all cultures.

Respect for other cultures – and learning about them – allows for self-development because it gives us perspective on how other people experience life’s struggles and achievements. They are often part of our own self-growth path. So give that more conscious focus.

And growth is the purpose behind life – one that continues as long as we draw breath during this incarnation. The opposite, stagnation and decline, are far less desirable.

Grow Through Insight

You have a choice. There are two ways to grow: through pain or through insight.

I know which one I prefer, how about you?

Pain wakes us up, making us more willing to put in the efforts to change and improve the circumstances of our lives.

Insights – those “a ha” or eureka moments – also bring about improvements, but seem to happen far less frequently than painful events.

We can speed that up. The insight path to making improvements can be developed. How? Through engaging in deliberate personal growth practices.

There are fundamental ones like reading, meditating, aligning priorities with values, setting goals, creative visualization, learning new skills, keeping a schedule and making better use of your time. But when you are at a loss for how to do those things, or how to focus those fundamentals to getting what you truly want, that’s when a coach or mentor can be a big help.

Coaching may be the biggest difference in moving from growth through pain to growth through insight, because the job of a coach is to support you in getting where YOU want to go. It makes the trip faster, easier, more efficient. Life is short…

So what gives us more insight? Moving up through the four levels of growth is a big help.

The Four Levels Of Growth

These are beautifully illustrated in the history that brought us Juneteenth!

Level One – To Me.
This is also known as the victim stage, where we feel the world is happening to us. We do not feel a sense of control, and do not recognize our power of choice. Staying at victim stage is a bit like wallowing in ‘woe is me,’ and that can be very self-indulgent if we don’t do something to address it. In the history we just addressed, enslaved people were indeed victims. However, wallowing in this stage was not possible for them as it led rather readily to cruel beatings and even death.

Level Two – From Me.
This is the manifesting stage of growth. We have a bit of an awakening, that we can DO something about our situation to change it for the better. It is a masculine orientation, where we make or push for something to happen. To move quickly from victim stage, our enslaved black brothers and sisters worked hard at the jobs they were assigned, and struggled to move forward into work to which their talents were best suited. That led to growth because then they could avoid punishment and feel productive.

Level Three – Through Me.
This is a more feminine approach to growth where we become the instrument through which life flows. Without resistance, we yield to, allow and make things welcome in our lives. We use our talents creatively for a larger purpose. We find ways to add value and make a beneficial contribution. I am reminded of the transcendence of slavery to build and beautify the world. Doing that work was accompanied by prayer and singing spiritual songs, doing the work to glorify God – if not ever to receive deserved credit for the work.

Level Four – With Me.
This level of growth is the ultimate “being one with the universe” level of activity. Here is where our level of happiness and vision for the future align and we can create without “efforting.” It is when our work feels like play, when we work with a sense of joy. It is an exceedingly blissful experience. This is the level we ultimately seek, and all wonder if we can have. It is also the level that slavery denied people from attaining.

The focus of Juneteenth on self-development encompasses the journey of enslaved people quickly through level one – since mere survival didn’t allow for the benefit of self-indulgence. They had to quickly move to levels two and three, the stages of productivity, building and beautifying the world.

Having done that, these ancestors deserve recognition. They encourage us all, to exercise our freedom to ascend to level four AND to assist all our brothers and sisters of color to do likewise.

So Here’s What To Do

If you’re not there yet… If you want to combine discipline with bliss to create your work and life with a sense of purpose that the universe supports – then:

focus on your personal development

Make the effort. It’s the fastest way to growth by insight, the most enjoyable path through life.

And do celebrate Juneteeth in recognition of the release of humans from bondage – now a national holiday in the U.S. Don’t make it just a day for another backyard cookout. Raise your consciousness to level four growth and expand your participation in real community.