Remembering freedom

Elizabeth Nash was well into adulthood before she heard much about Juneteenth. Her family’s understanding of freedom began instead with survival — escaping the 1917 East St. Louis Race Massacre.

As Juneteenth celebrations draw thousands across the St. Louis region, Nash represents a generation of Black Americans who did not grow up observing the holiday, even as its themes shaped their lives.

“We lived it,” Nash said. “It wasn’t anything to celebrate.”

On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed enslaved people they were free — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The message had traveled slowly. The memory of that day traveled much farther.

For generations, Black communities kept Juneteenth alive through church gatherings, family reunions, neighborhood cookouts and local celebrations. Juneteenth gained broader national attention following the racial justice protests of 2020 and became a federal holiday the following year after decades of advocacy.

Yet behind the festivals, parades and public celebrations are personal stories that reveal how Black Americans have experienced freedom, resilience and progress across generations.

For Nash, 84, the first Black and first female postmaster in Central Illinois, Juneteenth was not part of her childhood. Raised in East St. Louis, she said she did not learn much about the holiday until recent years.

Her family’s story is tied directly to the 1917 East St. Louis Race Massacre, one of the deadliest outbreaks of racial violence in American history.

“My family survived the race riots because the white people my grandmother worked for helped get us across the bridge to St. Louis safely,” Nash said. “Without that, there’s no me, and there’s no reason to celebrate anything. That is where my story starts when it comes to freedom.”

Her mother was born the following year in 1918.

Despite that history, Nash remembers a childhood shaped by strong families and close-knit neighborhoods.

“I didn’t know life was not good for us because my parents and community protected us from that,” she said.

Today, Nash volunteers with Bridges Ministry in East St. Louis, helping provide meals to residents in need.

“You have to look out for other people,” she said.

If Nash represents a generation that lived through history without formally celebrating Juneteenth, Joyce Hughes, 75, represents a generation determined to preserve those stories.

Hughes, president of Neighbors Impacting Communities and founder of the Soulard Juneteenth Festival, remembers attending Juneteenth celebrations at Fairground Park in the 1970s. She worries many people know the celebration without fully understanding the history behind it.

“I love Blackness. I love my people. I love history,” Hughes said.

What began as a small festival with vendors and music has grown over five years into a community celebration that attracts thousands of attendees, artists, educators and community organizations.

For Hughes, however, Juneteenth is about more than entertainment.

“I hope they learn the true history,” she said. “There was a cost paid.”

That commitment led her to partner this year with local educators and historians, including The 13th Amendment Freedom Week Movement.

MK Sadiq, 47, came to know Juneteenth through the arts.

A George Mason University research fellow and cultural researcher at the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission, Sadiq was involved in St. Louis’ Black arts community around 2000 through Legacy Books and Café when he first heard about a Juneteenth jazz event, long before the holiday gained national recognition.

Later, while researching Black arts and culture in Missouri, he discovered the state had its own emancipation tradition, known as Jubilee. Missourians celebrated the end of slavery in January 1865 — months before Juneteenth became part of Texas history. Yet Jubilee largely disappeared from public memory.

“As somebody from St. Louis, I had never heard of Jubilee,” he said.

For Sadiq, that disappearance underscores the importance of preserving history.

“Documentation determines what survives,” he said.

He embraces the joy of modern Juneteenth celebrations but hopes they are paired with education and reflection.

“I think dance is a sublime way of celebrating liberation,” Sadiq said. “But if we’re celebrating that Black people are free, the other question is: Are Black people free?”

That question lands differently for younger generations, including Alyssa Harris, 19, who has never known a world without Juneteenth. Unlike Nash’s generation, Harris grew up with Juneteenth as a familiar holiday on the calendar.

Originally from St. Louis, Harris now attends Marquette University in Milwaukee, majoring in psychology. She is also the owner of Create the Aura Studio, where she offers face painting at Juneteenth events.

“Kids get so excited because they kind of get to become this personality for the day,” she said.

Harris first learned about Juneteenth in fifth grade at City Academy in North St. Louis. Her mother, she said, made sure she understood not just what the holiday was, but why telling its stories mattered.

“My mom gave us a lot of information about what Juneteenth was, why it’s important that we know, and why it’s important that we share our stories,” Harris said.

To her, the holiday is both a celebration and a reminder of progress made and struggles not yet finished.

“We have a really big focus on trying to find ways to make changes and end the things that have been going on for so long,” she said.

Across four generations, their stories reflect how the meaning of Juneteenth continues to evolve while remaining rooted in history.

“Each generation should teach the next generation,” Hughes said.

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