The Living Archive
We are archiving the lived experiences of our community. Share your family's freedom story to be preserved in our permanent digital collection.
Featured Voices
Evelyn Vance
Beaumont, TX
“My great-grandmother told us about the day the bells finally rang in East Texas. They didn't just ring; they sang.”
She was seven years old, picking cotton outside Beaumont, when a man on horseback brought the news. She lived to be ninety-four — and every June 19th she'd dress in white and bake a sweet potato pie for every neighbor on the block.
Marcus Thorne
Chicago, IL
“Freedom is a constant struggle, a collective breath we take every nineteenth of June.”
I learned about Juneteenth from my grandfather, a porter who organized for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. He said freedom wasn't a finish line. It was a discipline. Something we practice together, in public, on purpose.
Adaeze Okafor
Atlanta, GA
“My grandmother kept the receipt from the first house she ever owned in a Bible on the mantel.”
She bought it in 1968, three years after the Voting Rights Act. She used to say the deed and the ballot were the only two pieces of paper that ever truly belonged to her. Both of them, she said, were Juneteenth.
Submit
We review every submission with care. With your permission, your story may be featured here, in a printed anthology, or in our permanent archive.