On Juneteenth, we remember a moment that changed history.
More than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, the news of freedom finally reached enslaved Black Americans in Texas. Imagine that moment. Imagine generations of men, women, and children who had lived under the weight of bondage finally hearing the words that they were free.
Free.
Not property. Not possessions. Not commodities to be bought and sold.
Free citizens of a nation they helped build with their labor, sacrifice, blood, and perseverance.
Every Juneteenth, we celebrate that victory. We celebrate the courage of those who endured slavery and lived long enough to see the dawn of freedom. We honor their legacy because their struggle made our lives possible.
But honoring their legacy requires more than remembrance.
It requires reflection.
As I look across our community today, I see that while the chains of physical slavery have been broken, many of us are still fighting against different forms of bondage. Economic hardship. Generational poverty. Unemployment, wage theft. Failing schools. Community businesses that open with hope and close before they ever have a chance to thrive.
Too many of our families are surviving when they should be building.
Too many of our young people are taught to admire gang culture, prison culture, and the worst stereotypes that have been placed upon us, instead of seeing themselves as future business owners, educators, builders, leaders, and innovators.
That is not who we are.
That has never been who we are.
We come from inventors, entrepreneurs, Soldiers, farmers, craftsmen, ministers, teachers, and freedom fighters. We come from people who survived the unimaginable and still found a way to build families, churches, businesses, and communities right here in our beloved city.
That is our inheritance.
The question before us is simple: What legacy will we leave behind?
Will our children inherit ownership or dependency?
Will they inherit opportunity or excuses?
Will they inherit businesses, property, skills, and institutions that strengthen their future, or will they inherit the same struggles we refuse or are too scared or “busy” to confront today?
Freedom is not maintained through hope alone.
Freedom requires work.
It requires political awareness. It requires civic engagement. It requires financial literacy. It requires education. It requires entrepreneurship and ownership.
We must learn how money moves through our community and why it often leaves as quickly as it arrives. We must support businesses that invest back into our neighborhoods. We must develop skills that create value. We must build organizations that outlive us.
Most importantly, we must believe that we are capable of doing these things.
The men and women we honor on this Juneteenth did not endure centuries of struggle so that future generations would settle for less than their full potential.
Their story is not simply about surviving oppression. Their story is about overcoming it.
So as we gather for this year’s Southern Colorado Juneteenth Festival at Penrose Arena June 20th and 21st, let us celebrate.
Let us remember. Let us honor those who came before us.
Then let us get back to work.
Let us break the chains of economic dependency. Break the chains of low-income expectations.
Let us build businesses. Build our families. Build our own institutions and wealth with opportunity.
Let us leave our children and grandchildren something greater than memories, instead let’s leave them a future.
Happy Juneteenth. All Power To The People.
Shaun Walls is a Pikes Peak Bulletin board member. The views expressed here are his alone. He is not paid for his work for the Bulletin.
