‘We The People’ Is The Focus Of A National Network Of Black Museums In Its Third Juneteenth Presentation

The BLKFreedom Collective Highlights the People’s Continued Fight for Freedom

MEMPHIS, TN, June 07, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — On June 19, the National Civil Rights Museum will virtually join ten leading Black museums and historical institutions from coast to coast for BLKFREEDOM.org to commemorate Juneteenth, the historic day the Emancipation Proclamation was officially enforced, ending enslavement in Texas. As an annual collaboration, and now, a federal holiday, the BlkFreedom Collective has produced a virtual program. In its third year, the group documents a national exploration of the U.S. Constitution in “We The People” through the eyes of historic museums and anthropologists from across the United States. The presentation will premiere on partnering sites and partnering networks at 1:00 PM EDT / 12:00 PM CDT.

BLKFREEDOM.org will commemorate the anniversary of Juneteenth. Juneteenth dates to June 19, 1865, when union soldier, Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, TX with the news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. This announcement was more than two and half years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

This year’s theme foundationally affirms the social identity of Blackness and its intersectionality within American values while raising the consciousness of structural racism and oppressive ideologies that continue to polarize this nation. The presentation explores how generations of Black Americans have preserved, innovated, cultivated, created, pioneered, strived, and championed the true principles of freedom so that a new generation remembers, echoes, and celebrates its ancestors’ accomplishments while remaining vigilant on not only issues of inclusion, diversity, and equity, but also justice as promised in the Constitution.

Through the virtual event, participating Black institutions declare, “We the people, having significantly contributed to this country in its quest to form a more perfect union, desiring for it to fulfill its principles and values as espoused in the Constitution despite years of enslavement, oppression, and discrimination, boldly define ourselves beyond race, condition, or socioeconomic background. We are a holistic community and culture with a profound legacy we carry with us today.”

BLKFREEDOM.org is a combined effort among the African American Museum of Philadephia (PA), America’s Black Holocaust Museum (Milwaukee, WI), August Wilson African American Cultural Center (Pittsburg, PA),  Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (AL), Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (Detroit, MI), Dallas African American Museum (TX), DuSable Museum of African American History (Chicago, IL), Harvey Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture (Charlotte, NC), Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park (Hilton Head Island, SC), National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis, TN), National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (Cincinnati, OH), and Northwest African American Museum (Seattle, WA). This collaborative program will explore the meaning and relevance of “freedom,” “justice,” and “democracy.”

For more information about collaborative partners, visit blkfreedom.org.