KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Juneteenth celebrates the day slaves in Galveston, Texas, were set free — June 19, 1865.
While many slaves were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it was unable to be enforced in all places, such as Galveston, until later.
In 2021, Congress declared Juneteenth a federal holiday. And now, the Texas-originated holiday is celebrated all over the United States.
One Kansas City, Kansas, family is honoring the day by sharing their history.
Freedom in Quindaro
Nakia Hope says Juneteenth feels especially personal as the descendant of one of the first five families to cross the Missouri River into freedom.
“Juneteenth for me and the idea of being free looks like my ability to be here right now,” Hope said.
She says she celebrates by standing in her truth.
“It’s just a symbol of hope and how were are able to fight through adversity,” Hope said. “It’s about people's willpower to live better and do better for themselves, despite some really horrible circumstances.”
Hope's fifth-great-grandfather Robert Monroe, an escaped slave from a corn plantation in Platte County, Missouri, endured such circumstances. But around 1856, he found freedom in Kansas.
“When the river froze over, he decided it was time to try at a better life,” Hope said. "Quindaro was a place where Black people had to learn to thrive.”
Crossing into Quindaro, the Monroe family was one of the first families to settle in the area. However, the journey was far from easy.
Hope and her loved ones hold on to their history through artifacts, including a knife Robert Monroe used to shuck corn to "cover over people to be able to kind of hide them" as he escaped to freedom.
"There is a really humbling feeling to say, 'Hey, I can see the face of the man who had to do this,'" Hope said. "And while he looks so majestic in the picture, you can only imagine the fear and the desperation of, 'Man, I hope this works out.'"
Reflecting on her roots, Hope says she is proud but is pained by the reality of the path to freedom being difficult to understand.
“There’s a never-ending cycle of grieving — you are grieving for the people you didn’t get to meet, you are grieving for what they went through,” she said.
Nevertheless, she celebrates Juneteenth to honor her past and inspire a greater future.
“People think that after June 19, 1865, Black people were just free and clear and life was good, but there was always a progressive fight,” Hope said. "It’s a day to remember that we are all still seeking freedom.”
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