It was an honor to be invited to speak during the opening session of the 3rd Biennial Key West Africana Festival. If you aren’t aware, Key West has some amazing history, from the African Cemetery to the exhibit on the wrecked slave ship, the Henrietta Marie, at the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. The focus of my remarks revolved around the meaning of Juneteenth, since the Festival fell just a few days after that holiday. The title of my speech is “Juneteenth Revisited, or For Negroes Who’ve Considered Revolution When Freedom Wasn’t Enough.” I felt that as we reflected on the occasion of the 152nd anniversary of emancipation in the U.S., that the holiday also offered a time for blacks to reflect and evaluate where we are and how we are fairing in relation to the struggles of our ancestors. My assessment isn’t sunny, as you will hear.
