Yet with a steady beat…
The drum beat of freedom has ebbed and flowed throughout history. In countless peoples the rhythm of liberty has often come from among the oppressed and marginalized. The people of God knew oppression, they knew slavery, and they yearned for the drum beat of freedom. The beat goes on. The struggle for freedom, inclusion, and justice continues.
As people of faith who follow Jesus, we have stood on both sides of history. We have condoned and even justified the evils of slavery while at the same time heeding Jesus’ call to let the captives go free. We have upheld the “clobber” passages of scripture, while declaring that in this church, “there will be no outcastes.” Our history is checkered.
But history would teach us important lessons for the church and for our world today. History, it is said, gives answers only to those who know how to ask questions. So what do Juneteenth Freedom Day and LGBTQIA+ Pride month have to teach us? History might have a thing or two to teach us about what it means to be set free.
On the morning of June 28, 1969, no one could have imagined that history would be made. Like any other day, the sun shone, the birds sang, and the world continued much as it had before, except that a long smoldering ember of hope ignited into a fire that would change the course of history around the world.
When Marsha P. Johnson entered the Stonewall Tavern in New York City that night with her friend Sylvia Rivera, she had no idea that as transwomen they would be at the forefront of LGBTQIA+ history. After years of persecution at the hand of law enforcement, after years of struggles for recognition and equality, after countless marches and protests June 28 would prove to be a fateful day. It was the day when Marsha claimed her heritage as one striving to be fully free.
That night when police raided the Stonewall Tavern with threats and violence, the LGBTQIA+ community had suffered enough. The raids, the arrests, the systems of oppression had reached a breaking point and Marsha, a Black trans-woman from Elizabeth, New Jersey, stood firmly at the forefront of the burgeoning gay rights movement.
Marsha did not stand alone. She stood knowing that hers was a legacy born out of the cruelty of slavery and honed in crucible of every person of African descent that had longed to breathe free. “History isn't something you look back at and say it was inevitable,” she said in an interview. “It happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.”[1]
From the early abolitionists through to the civil rights activists, she joined those who had prayed and protested, ran and resisted, marched and mobilized, yearning always to be free. Hers was the voice that bridged the struggles of her enslaved ancestors and oppressed LGBTQIA+ community. The beat goes on.
On the morning of June 19, 1865, no one could have imagined that history would be made that day. Like any other day the sun shone, the birds sang, and the world continued much as it had before, except that 2000 union soldiers arrived in Galveston Bay, TX to proclaim liberty. This had been a long day coming. On “Freedom’s Eve,” December 31, 1862, enslaved and freed African Americans gathered in churches and in homes, in fields and in town squares awaiting the news that Emancipation had come. With the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation the long walk to freedom was nearly over. But the news was not universally heard.
Union soldiers, many of whom were formerly enslaved themselves, marched onto plantations and town squares across the Confederate States to declare that African Americans were free. It would take almost three years and thousands of lives lost in a bloody civil war for the dream of emancipation to become a reality. The beat goes on.
It is no coincidence that the celebration of Juneteenth and observance of LGBTQIA+ Pride take place in the same month. Juneteenth Freedom Day is about more than just the news of emancipation being proclaimed to those who had been enslaved. It is a clarion call for us to celebrate the many ways we continue to persist even when “hope unborn had died.”
In our time the yearning to be fully free is most evident in the struggles for LGBTQIA+ rights and the long road towards freedom for African Americans. We continue to bear witness to the alarming rise of discrimination and prejudice, especially prevalent against Black-Trans persons. We have come a long way. We have a long way to go before we can realize the truth that all are created equal, all are endowed with the rights of, “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”
Yet with a steady beat we, who claim the mantle of followers of Jesus of Nazareth, are called to stand firm and stand fast with those who yearn to be truly free. The drum of freedom continues to beat with the rhythm of hope. The beat goes on.