Thread by @Theresa_Chapple

Many of yall are awaking to a day off for a holiday you never celebrated before.
I've celebrate #Juneteenth #JubileeDay my entire life. I love the parades that many major cities have, but we also had personal family traditions too. Here's my family's approach.

We start by hanging two Juneteenth flags. First, the official Juneteenth flag is red, white, and blue with 1 star burting through. Second the variations flag that comes in red, black, and green, colors that remind us of Africa.
We talk about the colors both flags represent.

The traditional flag has the colors of America, because we are American. This country is prosperous because of 400 years of unpaid or underpaid labor from our ancestors. We are as American as it gets, and our contributions are what made America the force that it is.

The one star represents Texas, the last state to learn about our freedom.
The red, Black, and green flag also carries the phrase "Free-ish since 1865".
This allows for conversation with my kids about 2 things.
1- Our ancestors were torn from countries mainly from West Africa.

Red represents the blood our Ancrestors shed, the loss of life on the voyage here, the blood shed from the beatings into submission once here, and the continual shedding of our blood from violence first perpetuated by our captors (interpersonal and institutional/systemic racism)

and then translated into internalized racism.
Green represents the land we were torn from, we talk about the prosperity of the nations we were taken from. The ingeniuty of our people there, and the food and customs that they brought from the homeland and were able to replicate

here (ocra, innoculations, etc).
Black- the color of our skin. Here we talk about all the wonderful things Blacks have contributed to this country. We also talk about the importance of thinking further than whats taught in school, often times the great things Black people have

done in this country weren't attributred to us, so when learning about something 1st done by a white person, our job is to ask "what Black person did it 1st, or what role did Black people have in making that project a success".

I teach my kids that our history here is for us to uncover.
2. The slogan- Free-ish since 1865. I teach my children that the emancipation proclamation did little to free the slaves because by this time, the majority of the slaves in this country were in the south,

and the south had split from the Union and had their own President. So Lincoln had no authority over them and his proclamation did very little at the time (Jan 1, 1863). The 13th amendment is what actually ended slavery, and that was ratified on Dec 6, 1865.

Why free-ish? Well because systemic, interpersonal, and internalized racism wont let us just live freely.
These are the lessons I reiterate to my children, while outside, enjoying green scenery (back yard or park) eating red foods (watermelon, red drinks

and water ice [italian ice for non Philly people] strawberries and cherries, hot dogs and ribs with bbq sauce, and anything else red we can think of) and surround by Black people, blackness, and Black music. We speak AAVE with ease fearing no judgement,

and we tell all our stories of Black greatness and ingeniuty. We remind our children that Tulsa was just 1 Black thriving community taken away from us, and that this was a tactic used often and all over the country. We tell them stories of Wilmington NC and other

thriving communities we once had. We talk about the gullah geeche communities and why their father and I married on their land (islands off the coast of Georgia and SC).

So new people to this, learn some new stories. Our greatness is weaved throughout American history. If you'd like a quick reference check my hashtag #blackhistoryisamericanhistory.

@SmithsonianChan I hear you're looking for stories of what #JuneTeenth2021 means to people. Read upthread for my story.