Juneteenth: The Duality of Liberation and Loss

This is a guest blog from Mynesha Spencer, a human relations strategist at All of Us Together Co. who works to advance human harmony across various professional industries by creating inclusive strategies and equitable outcomes. This blog is estimated to take 3 minutes to read.

The All of Us Together team has spent much of the last eight years balancing data, strategy, and the deep human stories that shape our work. This Juneteenth, we offer this excerpt not only from a place of professional experience but from lived experience—one steeped in both grace and grief.

Juneteenth marks a date of profound importance in our nation’s history: June 19, 1865, when the last enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas were told they were free—more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. This delay, this withholding of freedom, is a truth that still haunts the roots of the many systems we all operate within. And yet, Juneteenth is also a celebration—a cultural reckoning, mental reclamation, spiritual restoration. It is festivals and reunions, poetry slams, and the vibrant rhythm of Black excellence. It is joy carved from struggle. That’s the duality of Juneteenth—liberation and loss, promise and pain, all bound together.

Here in Nebraska, that duality continues in real time. While we honor freedom, we must also confront the tragedy of forced relocation of immigrant community members, especially Hispanic and Latino families right here in Omaha and across our state, many of whom have navigated the legal processes to establish and acquire citizenship. This reality has resulted in children separated from parents. Families uprooted and confined. People treated not as human beings with dreams and stories, but as logistical problems to be handled. As we reflect on liberation this holiday, we must be courageous enough to state plainly where liberty is still a commodity denied to others.

Because true freedom—real, durable, collective freedom—is not a limited commodity, it grows when we extend it to others. Our celebration of Juneteenth must include the work of ensuring that no community in Nebraska—or anywhere—is living under the shadow of fear, forceful oppression, and/or trepidation of any other kind.

Our nonpartisan human capital firm partners year after year with the Weitz Family Foundation because it is an organization with an unbreakable belief in the power of community. Our partners believe in the same philosophy we do: that belief comes with responsibility, a collective and conscious responsibility which requires our concerted effort. That responsibility is: if we are going to stand in celebration today, we must also stand in solidarity tomorrow—and every day after.

Whether you’re looking to better understand Juneteenth, apply lessons of allyship and amplification in your work/across your team, or simply develop skills to improve human relations, you’re encouraged to visit www.allofustogetherco.com or contact us directly at info@allofustogetherco.com. We remain a proud and persistent resource for insight, information, and action—for all of us, together.

Happy Juneteenth, Family!