Williams & Connolly is proud to celebrate Juneteenth, our country’s second Independence Day. In celebration of Juneteenth, Williams & Connolly asked associate Armani Madison to reflect on the importance of his black identity and the importance of this holiday being more widely observed.
“On June 19, 1865, more than two months after General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox and nearly two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation, a large group of Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, announcing the freedom of over 250,000 enslaved Black people whose liberations had been delayed as captives of the Confederacy. Today, 159 years later, we commemorate the fourth celebration of Juneteenth as a federal holiday.
Growing up Black in the Deep South, I knew Juneteenth for most of my life as an occasion that, while significant in the Black American community, appeared relatively obscure in the broader national conversation. However, every year as Juneteenth approached, there would invariably be some museum, church service, film screening, or other reflection-based exercise for which my parents would require my attendance and participation. Although Juneteenth was celebrated wherever Black Americans settled post-emancipation, its celebration seemed most poignant in the Deep South—the region where the horrors of slavery and subsequent generations of de facto and de jure anti-Black subjugation seemed most visible. I thus grew up internalizing Juneteenth as a day for the explicit and unapologetic celebration of Black American triumphs, as well as for serious reflection on the challenges that persistently line our path to freedom.
It is powerful to consider that the last two federal holidays to be created—Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 1983 and Juneteenth in 2021—recognize the centrality of Black American history, culture, and struggle in our collective national consciousness. In essence, without Black American history, there is no American history. Americanness itself cannot exist without Black Americans. Moreover, there certainly can be no national discussion of “freedom” without acknowledging the particularized experiences of Black Americans related to that term. While Independence Day maintains prime billing as the celebration of our nation’s freedom, the establishment of Juneteenth recognizes, as Frederick Douglass once insightfully reflected, that the Fourth of July was not a day of freedom for all. Although it may be tempting to treat Juneteenth as yet another summer holiday for leisure, it is important to reflect on the horrors of the American slave trade that necessitated this day, celebrate the triumphs and rich contributions of Black Americans to our country’s tapestry, and actively consider how we can contribute to the work that remains to be done in the ongoing Black American freedom struggle.
I am proud to celebrate Juneteenth, a holiday that our firm has recognized as “our country’s second Independence Day.” Let us all find a way to use this day not only for leisure but also as an opportunity to learn about the past and to consider ways to contribute toward a more just future.”
-Armani Madison, Associate