Today is Wednesday, June 19, 2024. Today marks the third year that the holiday of Juneteenth has been celebrated in the United States as a federal holiday. The holiday marks the day in 1865 that enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, found out they had been freed – after the end of the Civil War and two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Also known as Emancipation Day, Juneteenth has been celebrated in Texas for decades. An online article by CNN describes the significance of the Juneteenth flag and what the symbols on it generally mean. The writer of the article is Harmeet Kaur and it’s entitled “The Juneteenth flag is full of symbols. Here’s what they mean.”

The flag we might see flying over state capitols and city buildings is the Juneteenth Flag that has a banner with a bursting star in the middle of it, which is a symbolic representation of the end of slavery in the United States.

The flag is the brainchild of activist Ben Haith, founder of the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation (NJCF). Haith created the flag in 1997 with the help of collaborators, and Boston-based illustrator Lisa Jeanne Graf brought their vision to life.

The flag was revised in 2000 into the version we know today, according to the National Juneteenth Observation Foundation. Seven years later, the date “June 19, 1865” was added, commemorating the day that Union Army Major General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, and told enslaved African Americans of their emancipation.

For more than two decades, communities across the country have held flag-raising ceremonies on Juneteenth in celebration of their freedom.

Here are what all of the elements of the flag symbolize:

The star

The white star in the center of the flag has a dual meaning, Haith said. For one, it represents the Lone Star State. It was in Galveston in 1865 where Union soldiers informed the country’s last remaining enslaved people that, under the Emancipation Proclamation issued two years earlier, they were free.

But the star goes beyond Texas, representing the freedom of African Americans in all 50 states.

The burst

The bursting outline around the star is inspired by a nova, a term that astronomers use to mean a new star.

On the Juneteenth flag, this represents a new beginning for the African Americans of Galveston and throughout the land.

The arc

The curve that extends across the width of the flag represents a new horizon: the opportunities and promise that lay ahead for Black Americans.

The colors

The red, white, and blue represents the American flag, a reminder that slaves and their descendants were and are Americans.

The designer of the Juneteenth flag, Ben Haith, has said the colors symbolize the continuous commitment of people in the United States to do better – and to live up to the American ideal of liberty and justice for all.

The type of food that is associated with this holiday are traditional items like barbecued ribs or other red meat, watermelon, and red velvet cake. Thus the color red is the one that is symbolic of this holiday since it symbolizes the bloodshed and sacrifice of enslaved ancestors.

Another associated article on the legacy of slavery in this country appears online for CNN by Omar Jimenez entitled “One man says his father was born into slavery. Here’s what Juneteenth means to his family.”

The article introduces us to 83-year-old Wilbur B. Bell at his father’s gravestone in a northern Florida town. “His father’s name, Cornelius Bell, is etched on the weathered marker along with a date of birth, May 18, 1865 – mere months before the 13th Amendment was ratified, officially abolishing slavery in the United States.”

That would mean Cornelius Bell was born before slavery was outlawed in the United States. It was common law among slave states that the children of enslaved women legally became slaves.

According to his family, Bell was born in Clinch County, Georgia, and was 75 years old when Wilbur – his eighth and youngest child – was born.

Today, only Wilbur and his sister, Lutisha, are still alive.

Wilbur Bell said he didn’t know his father had been born into slavery until “probably about 50 years ago.”

Only this year Wilbur Bell did something he’s never done in 83 years and that was to visit the town in Georgia where he says his father was born.

Cornelius Bell was born in Homerville, Georgia, a town today of just over 2,000 people near the state’s border with Florida.

Nearly 160 years after Cornelius Bell’s birth and the abolition of slavery, the United States remains bitterly divided over the enduring legacy of the institution. A culture war has been fought in Congress, classrooms, and courthouses over how to preserve and teach both the history of slavery in the country and the enduring impact centuries of racism and subjugation continue to have on people of color in the United States.

Like many Black Americans, the Bells still know very little of their family history. Slavery ripped families apart, causing ruptures in ancestral lines that can be proven to be difficult to retrace because records were often incomplete or scarce.

Wilbur Bell learned that his father left Homerville and moved to nearby Lake City, Florida, when he was around 30 years old. According to Cornelius Bell’s obituary, written in 1961, he was born in May 1865 and died on December 6, 1961, as a “highly respected citizen” who “owned and operated a farm and was retired at the time of his passing.”

Juneteenth has come to hold a special significance for the Bell family, given what they have learned of their patriarch, Cornelius. The commemoration acknowledges that freedom and equality for people of color in the United States has been a hard-fought, gradual process – and that fight continues today.

Vincent Bell, nephew to Wilbur, talked about the subject of slavery to CNN. He said, “I wish we just stopped talking about slavery. We can’t do anything about it. It was a horrible thing, and to some extent, perhaps we still feel the effects of that. But we can’t grow, and we can’t move forward if we don’t let it go.” His uncle Wilbur tends to agree, as someone who says he’s had to hustle for everything in his life.

“It’s about moving forward, ya know?” Vincent Bell told CNN.

Moving forward while honoring the past – that’s what Wilbur Bell said he hoped to achieve this Juneteenth by retracing his father’s life and keeping his legacy alive for future generations. In conclusion, Bell remembered his father for one thing: “He was a survivor. He was a real survivor.”

Just to remind everyone: tomorrow Elliot and I journey down to Florida from Thursday to next Tuesday to visit two sets of cousins and, possibly, my son.

All I can say is be cool and hydrated during these early hot days of summer.

Stay safe and be well.