(pensive music) - When I talk to people about Juneteenth, I still...

I still get surprised from some folks that it is a federal holiday.

And then beyond that, there are still people who ask me, "Well, what is that?

What is Juneteenth?"

Well, mostly not people in our community, but people from the outside.

And I think part of the point of this is getting everyone to understand the significance of this and why we pause every year on this day to think about it.

- Yeah, and I think for me, that the significance behind Juneteenth is it isn't just remembering the enslaved people in Galveston, Texas found out about it, it's now freedom.

- [Stephen] Yes.

- What does that mean?

- [Stephen] Right.

- What do we do as Black Americans to now grasp something that's new to us?

I mean, experiencing that, right?

And so for us, for me, Juneteenth is a moment to reflect of who we are.

- [Stephen] Yeah.

- Where we come from, but also where are we going?

- Yeah, yeah.

- Right.

- You're fairly new here and at the museum.

Tell me how important this day and this celebration is at the museum and why the Wright is the right place for us to do this.

- I will say that the museum's been around, we're really celebrating our 60-year anniversary this year.

- [Stephen] Yeah, right.

- What does that mean, right?

In a Black city.

Right, but also important I want to point out that before Juneteenth was a national holiday, the museum was always celebrating Juneteenth- - [Stephen] Was always acknowledging it, right?

- We always acknowledged it, right?

We, as people and as an institution, we didn't need someone to tell us, "This is a national holiday."

For us, it was always a celebration, a freedom, remembrance, and honoring our ancestors and today.

And so the museum is still gonna continue to do that 60 years later down the road, whether it is a national holiday, right?

Still, or whether it's not, we're gonna still always celebrate, and honor, and remember who we are.

- Also talk about this year and what, I guess, I would assign additional importance to for recognizing not just this day, but, as you point out, the idea of freedom.

We're having quite an intense, I think, debate about what freedom means and should look like in this country.

And not just for African Americans, for- - [Lance] All people.

- For all people.

- I think the word freedom can be very subjective.

It means different things for people, right?

I think for me, if I had to talk about, for me personally, freedom means a sense of peace, right?

A sense of imagination, right?

And I think the Charles H. Wright African American Museum does that, right?

Dr. Wright had a vision of like, "How do we create freedom?

How do we create imagination?

But also how do we remember who we are and where we're going?

And so for me, that is what freedom is.

Even in the complexities of this country, I think we have to take moments to remember those moments.

And I think the museum does a fantastic job of reminding us of who we are, how we got here, and where we're going.

- Yeah, yeah.

That sense of peace, I think, is really key right now.

Because I think there are so many people who don't feel at peace because they feel like the freedom is threatened.

- [Lance] Yeah, you don't know where we're going.

- And question in a way that it wasn't before.

How do we sort of settle that discussion so that everybody does feel that sense of peace?

- I think for me, if we're thinking about Juneteenth, right?

And we're honoring and remembering former enslaved people, right?

They went through a process of a system that broke them, right?

That destroyed them, that ripped families away from them.

But those individuals kept moving forward, right, in the hope of, one day, freedom.

- [Stephen] Right, right.

- Right?

And transition that to individuals, like Dr. King, Dr. Wright, Malcolm X, Dr. Betty Shabazz, right?

Looking and remembering, "I do remember where we come from."

- Right, right.

- Right.

I remember that they had held on hope, and hope was pouring into me, and freedom was poured into me.

And so I think for me, that's the way that we continue to do that, even in turmoil in this country.

- Yeah.

- Right?

Is remembering the past to say, "Hey, if we can get through that process, we can get through this again."