Florida doesn’t recognize Juneteenth as a holiday. But residents do: ‘We’ve come a long way’

Juneteenth, a day to celebrate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans two centuries ago, has only recently been recognized as a holiday, but people in Southwest Florida have long understood its significance.

It took two years for more than 250,000 Black people in slavery to get the news that they had finally been freed.

“Juneteenth makes it very clear that, depending on who you were, where you were, July 4 didn’t matter,” said Martin Byrd, president of the Dunbar Festival. “When the Emancipation Proclamation was spoken, it didn’t matter for a number of people.”

Twenty-four American states recognize Juneteenth as a holiday. Florida is one of 26 that do not.

It took even longer—156 years—for the U.S. to acknowledge what happened on that day in 1865 and make every June 19 a federal holiday.

“This is history that we are trying to tell over and over again,” said Vincent Keeys, president of the Collier County NAACP. “It is good, not only for us to remember… it’s one thing for us to commemorate this holiday, a federal holiday, but it’s another thing for us to educate our kids, our youth, so that they begin to grow up and have the same pride that we have, living in this country.”

It’s a country that now erupts in celebrations on Juneteenth because people know not only what it took for every person to be free, but for their fight to be acknowledged.

“One of my mentors always told me that history doesn’t repeat itself; people repeat history,” said Travell “T.O.” Oakes, assistant director of multicultural development initiatives at Florida Gulf Coast University. “When I think about the power of understanding the past and looking for it as the future, I think of my ancestors.”

Although the day recognizes the struggles of one race, it also recognizes that slavery was ended by a struggle that crossed the boundaries of race and class.

“Juneteenth isn’t just for African Americans,” Oakes said.

“We’re so proud of this country [that] has come a long way,” Keeys said. “We still have a long way to go, but we’ve come a long way.”

Someday soon, Juneteenth might be celebrated by everyone.