Greenwich Community Celebrates Juneteenth

GREENWICH, CT — On Friday, Greenwich held its first ever celebration of Juneteenth with a ceremony in front of Town Hall.

More than 75 people, along with the Board of Selectmen and members of the town's delegation to Hartford and other elected officials, participated in a ceremony that acknowledged the past and looked towards a brighter future.

Juneteenth was declared a federal holiday in 2021, and recently became a state holiday in Connecticut.

The day marks the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in Texas on June 19, 1865, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. Union Army General Gordon Granger delivered the news to those still enslaved in Galveston, Texas, that they were free.

Friday's ceremony at Town Hall featured a proclamation reading from First Selectman Fred Camillo and several comments from elected officials, as well as a reading of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation by Greenwich students.

A Juneteenth flag was also raised, which will fly until the morning of June 21.

"Certainly Juneteenth is a big part of our history, and something we're just starting to officially recognize probably 157 years late, but we're proud to do it right now," Camillo said. "People can reflect on the freedom that was won in 1863, and also respect it and vigorously defend it going forward."

YWCA of Greenwich CEO Mary Lee Kiernan said there are several dimensions to celebrating Juneteenth.

"Let's acknowledge the past today and actively work together toward a more equitable future," she said. "Let's commit together this Juneteenth to recognize and actively address all forms of racism that we encounter, particularly systems and institutions that marginalize and oppress, as slavery did."

State Sen. Ryan Fazio (R-36) said "it's important that Juneteenth has become widely recognized in the public eye." It is considered the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.

"I appreciate our town is holding this ceremony, and I hope it is a day for reflection and solidarity so that we continue to try and make this country more perfect," Fazio said.

State. Rep. Stephen Meskers (D-150) said America is "still a work in progress."

"We all should be proud that we've gotten here, but acknowledge and recognize that so much work needs to be done. In order to become a more perfect union, we all need to participate in that effort," he said.

State Rep. Kimberly Fiorello said Juneteenth is "an occasion to honor and reflect on the courage of all those who came before us," who faced hardships like no other.

"As Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg, that the test is whether this nation, conceived in liberty, and so dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, can long endure," Fiorello said. "I believe the answer is yes, this country will long endure as a country founded in liberty and all men are created equal."

The Rev. Thomas Nins of of First Baptist Church said no one living today can fully comprehend what slavery was like.

"Juneteenth is and always will be significant. It is the day that freedom finally came, and to those attempting to rewrite the truth — and you can give them my phone number — know that we are watching, we remember and we will continue to teach the truth about what we were up against and how we made it through," Nins said.

"America is not a great country because we never had slavery. America is a great country because we had slavery and decided we would never have it again."

Nins shared a poem he wrote about Juneteenth:

The word finally came, but we didn't know yet.
The world had changed, but we hadn't heard it.
Freedom, for many an impossible dream, and when the words came some didn't know what the mean.
Some were not ready to be this thing — free.
Slaves in the mind, chains on their dreams, living like property in the land of the free.
When the light is too bright, we go back to darkness.
Our movement is awkward, 'cause our eyes don't adjust yet.
Nighttime had ended, the word finally come, so we dance and we march and gather in parks.
And we honor the elders, and we laugh and we talk.
We retell the story about how we finally got here.
Raise hands to the heavens, and thanks to God that we made it.
The word finally came, and some of us heard it.
We tore off the chains, and when we removed them we walked in that new light, with a new right to choose it.
Freedom, freedom, we celebrate freedom.
Freedom, we celebrate freedom.