(smooth jazz music) (audience applauding) ♪ Lift every voice and sing ♪ ♪ Till earth and heaven ring ♪ ♪ Ring with the harmonies of Liberty ♪ ♪ Let our rejoicing rise ♪ ♪ High as the listening skies ♪ ♪ Let it resound loud as the rolling sea ♪ ♪ Sing a song full of the faith ♪ ♪ That the dark past has taught us ♪ ♪ Sing a song full of the hope ♪ ♪ That the present has brought us ♪ ♪ Facing the rising sun ♪ ♪ Of our new day begun ♪ ♪ Let us march on till victory is won ♪ ♪ God of our weary years ♪ ♪ God of our silent tears ♪ ♪ Thou who has brought us thus far on the way ♪ ♪ Thou who has by Thy might ♪ ♪ Led us into the light ♪ ♪ Keep us forever in the path, we pray ♪ ♪ Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, ♪ ♪ Where we met Thee ♪ ♪ Lest our heart drunk with the wine of the world ♪ ♪ We forget Thee ♪ ♪ Shadow beneath Thy hand ♪ ♪ May we forever stand ♪ ♪ True to our God ♪ ♪ True to our native land ♪ (audience applauding) - Greetings everybody.

That's loud, right?

It's so good to see you all here.

And thank you once again for that rendition of the Negro National Anthem.

Can we give her another hand please?

(audience applauding) So my name is Jabbar Bennett and I serve as Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer here at Michigan State University.

And I'll be helping to facilitate today's or this evenings program.

Thank you all for coming out today.

And for all of us who are, all of you who are joining us via livestream, welcome to you as well.

It's truly a pleasure to welcome you here to this second annual Juneteenth Commemorative Celebration at Michigan State University.

As you all know, Juneteenth is the longest running African American holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved Africans in the United States.

(audience applauding) Juneteenth, as you might imagine, is a combination of June and 19th, which is traditionally observed on June 19th.

We are celebrating Juneteenth here at MSU today on June 17th in alignment with other local celebrations and to avoid overlapping with Father's Day.

Right, which is in two days this year.

MSU theme for this year's event is Afrofuturism, which you'll hear more about from our esteem, keynote speaker, MSU professor of English, Dr. Julian Chambliss.

Yeah.

(audience applauding) There's actually a lot in store.

So you're gonna be clapping a lot this evening, which is a good thing.

It really is.

But right now, please help me welcome our first two speakers, MSU board of trustees members, Renee Knake Jefferson, and Dr. Rema Vassar to share some brief remarks.

(audience applauding) - Good evening.

- [Crowd] Good evening.

- And thank you so much, Dr. Bennett.

We are so grateful for the work that you do.

My name is Renee Knake Jefferson, and I am a trustee here at Michigan state, and I am a very grateful member of this community.

Having taught on the law of faculty, having raised my kids on this campus, and being married to a proud Spartan grad whose education here at Michigan state would set him a descendant of enslaved people on a path that would lead him to become the first African American Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas.

(audience applauding) And of course it, it is an honor to lead this institution with the amazing Dr. Rema.

- Good afternoon.

(audience applauding) So I feel like this hat needs its own introduction, okay?

All right.

In the spirit of Sankofa and keeping with Dr. Chambliss's talk, not only darkness, the legacy and future of black speculative practice, I Dr. Rema, honor black folks who came before us and bring them, particularly the church mothers.

This is all church mother I'm giving you today, into today's celebration of freedom, with the crown be fitting their beautiful struggle and resplendent resilience.

Welcome.

(audience applauding) - It's unusual for two trustees to jointly deliver a welcome like this, certainly in my tenure on the board, I don't think this has ever happened.

But we made the deliberate decision to do so because of the importance of recognizing Juneteenth here at Michigan State University.

- Michigan State University has a rich history of first for African Americans.

A history of scholarship and activism that centers black folks.

Allow me to name a few MSU scholar activists, Wisdom Henry, Walter Carney, Yasabada, Renia Reynolds, Antonio White, Marcus McDaniel Jr., Dion Pierre Bennett.

These students have so much to look forward to, particularly gainful employment.

Last year, I'm really counting on that for my senior.

Yeah, I'm ready for her to get a job.

Last year, black MSU graduates had the highest rate of employment outta all other students.

Our graduates (audience applauding) who quite often keep themselves in our state, had the highest rate of employment.

Quite a feat, given the world was experiencing a global pandemic and another racial reckoning.

Yet, we rise.

Black folks thrive under unimaginable circumstances.

Black MSU alums are shaping the culture, defending human rights, setting records, and breaking barriers.

For example, smooth jazz saxophonist, Randy Scott.

(audience applauding) Okay, all right.

Bassist India Owens.

They're both from Detroit.

(audience applauding) Two time alum and counselor and author Lucius Vassar from Niles, Michigan.

All right, West side, who is home with my children.

And I just wanna say really quickly, I raise here that the research shows us that black men, despite stereotypes depicting them as absent, are the most engaged fathers across race.

They're the most engaged father.

They actively care for their children in ways that other folks don't.

And I just wanna wish all of the fathers here, a happy Father's Day, just clap it up for yourselves.

(audience applauding) I have this husband, the love of my life, the life of my black love.

I honor him and the man he is.

The man he is to me and to mine and to yours and MSU for making him black and fantastic in this world.

And finally, Flint native, Tracy Sherrod, the editorial director of Amistad and imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Black MSU alum are setting trends.

Making moves, shaking tables, and providing a black print, serving as luminaries, emblems of perseverance, love, and excellence.

- And we are here together to assure you that it is our highest priority as members of the board of trustees, seeing our collective success realized through African American Spartans.

You may know that after many months of work in September of 2021, the board of trustees unanimously endorsed our strategic plan MSU 2030, empowering excellence, advancing equity, and expanding impact.

The board was actively involved in the deliberations and the drafting of this strategic plan.

And it has diversity, equity, and inclusion woven throughout it.

The word diversity shows up more than 20 times, inclusion more than 25 times.

Dr. Rema and I want those words to be felt meaningfully on this campus.

We want our pledges and promises and those pages to be born out in the actual lived experiences of our students, our faculty, our staff, our alumni, our guests.

- I'm just geeked to be with you.

So I'm hoping that we see you again in the next eight years that I need to work with you as we work with Dr. Stanley and Dr. Bennett, and those committed to continued local and global liberation for black people.

Thank you so much for your commitment.

Thank you so much for coming, all the guests to this Juneteenth celebration.

I want you all to have a good time, and I also want you to dance.

The board of trustees, appreciate your persistence work for justice.

Keep the fight alive.

(audience applauding) - Thank you, trustees, Jefferson and Vassar.

It's truly honored to have you here with us today to represent the board.

And now I would like to invite MSU president, Dr. Samuel L. Stanley Jr. to the podium to offer some words of welcome and remarks as well.

(audience applauding) - Well thank you so much, Dr. Bennett.

And as the board, as the trustees said, thank you so much for everything you're doing for MSU.

Dr. Bennett has already made a remarkable difference as our Chief Diversity Officer.

He's really working very hard and let's hear it for him and his work.

(audience applauding) And I know he would say he has an outstanding team and that team did much to put this day together, along with many others.

So again, applause for them, if you don't mind.

(audience applauding) He did say we'd be clapping a lot, right?

So, he was serious.

So it's exciting to see so many Spartans together, families and neighbors come together for this celebration of Juneteenth.

And I want to thank trustee Knake Jefferson, and trustee Vassar for their remarks.

And acknowledge our other speakers today.

I really look forward to this program.

Today's event, I think it's particularly joyful reflection of Michigan state's dedication to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion and creating social change, starting on our own campus.

We at Michigan State University have much to celebrate, from an increasingly diverse student population to last month' US Senate confirmation of professor Lisa Cook our own professor, Lisa Cook to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

The first black woman to sit on the board.

(audience applauding) Now was one year ago today that President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, establishing the national holiday.

Gathered here today, we do more than commemorate a historical moment of emancipation, and we sit instead, we also celebrate black culture.

We also recognize that the full promise of freedom for all remains unrealized, even after 157 years.

We see troubling differences for black communities and individuals, in vital measures, such as healthcare, access and outcome, in economic and employment figures, and in educational metrics.

Unacceptably, black communities remain threatened to a greater extent by crime and violence compared to other groups as we tragically saw play out in Buffalo, New York last month.

And a return to historic efforts by some to keep black communities politically marginalized.

We see renewed attempts to suppress voting through intimidation and other barriers to participation.

To those of us like me, who actually grew up in the 60s, when it appeared such evils might finally be faced and vanquished, these are particularly troubling developments.

But we are not powerless in the face of opposition.

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "the moral arc of the universe is long, "but bends towards justice."

Therefore a university like Michigan state can represent an inflection point on that curve.

We can be proud of the university's legacy of supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, including president John Hannah's Chairmanship of the US Commission on Civil Rights, starting in 1957.

And the university's integration of its championship football team in the 1960s.

Today, we are building on this important legacy, striving to become a national leader in advancing DEI, and eliminating disparities on our campus and beyond.

Our efforts include developing both a comprehensive DEI plan.

And as the trustee said, a larger university strategic plan that amplifies and elevates our commitment equity.

Indeed Michigan state is resolved to eliminate gaps in graduation rates, while elevating all student groups as our strategic plan and visions.

In doing so, MSU can make meaningful difference for individuals and families across many other areas of disparity.

Our efforts to advance DEI encompasses so much more, including the multicultural center planning process and the task forces on racial equity, which reviewed pressing issues in campus climate and safety, policing, faculty, and staff diversity.

And the launch of DEI foundations, who required online educational module for employees and students attended to heightened awareness and help ensure all members of our community feel welcome, respected, and included.

I'm proud of our community's engagement, advancing these in other DEI initiatives over the last couple of years.

As I've said many times before, a culture embracing diversity, equity, inclusion is essential to the health and success of our university and a fostering environment, in which all of our students, faculty and staff, can succeed and thrive.

I believe education is a powerful remedy to the challenges facing our society.

And I want Michigan state to be at the forefront of addressing those challenges.

I wanna thank everyone for joining us here today for representing our Spartan will to make a difference by helping us celebrate Juneteenth.

Dr. Bennett, I look forward to hearing from you and the other speakers.

Thank you so much again today.

(audience applauding) - Thank you so much President Stanley, and I appreciate you for being here, for your full support of this event, as well as our campus community and recognition of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Let's give President Stanley another hand.

(audience applauding) And now I'd like to invite Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and provost Dr. Teresa K. Woodruff to say a few words as well, Provost Woodruff.

(audience applauding) - Thank you very much, Dr. Bennett.

It really is an honor to join you and President Stanley, trustee Knake Jefferson, trustee Vassar, distinguished faculty, academic staff, students staff, and everyone who's joining us from across the university, and the local community, both here and beyond as we recognize and celebrate Juneteenth at MSU.

We celebrate individuals and identity and intersectionality.

We celebrate person and purpose and academic passion.

Celebrations such as this, foreground the key roles that diversity, equity, and inclusion play in making MSU the world class, global research intensive, impactful university that it is today.

One of the first books that I read nearly two years ago, when making plans to join you at MSU was the memoir "Privilege and Prejudice "the Life of a Black Pioneer" by President Clifton R. Wharton Jr. That book and the equally brilliant 2019 autobiography of Dolores Wharton tells the story of MSU through the lens of excellence, equity, and aspirations.

Last evening, with some of you in the room, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the MSU Wharton Center for performing arts.

A grand affair that included a video clip of Cliff Wharton, speaking to us 40 years ago, and I believe today.

On the occasion of the 1972 ribbon cutting, he said, "you have all heard me say many times "that a university is more than bricks and mortar."

And then he paused, laughingly and said, "so you named a building after me."

That brought down the house, last night.

And so tonight as we celebrate Juneteenth at MSU, let us dwell on the first half of that sentence.

Words he said repeatedly, that a university is more than bricks and mortar.

MSU's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion constitutes one of the six foundational and crosscutting strategic themes at the core of MSU's strategic plan, empowering excellence, advancing equity, and an expanding impact.

As such, it is a proxy for all that we are focusing on and investing in.

It not only integrates our strategic plan, but it drives our aspiration to improve across a broad range of areas, including eliminating all opportunity gaps experienced by our undergraduate and graduate students by 2030.

And to diversify our faculty, academic staff, leadership, and students.

Equity, excellence, aspirations, yes.

Transformed lives and a better world, absolutely.

Juneteenth asks us to gather and in the academy, give critical appraisal in moments of significant past accomplishment and our future path.

Juneteenth implores us to remain ever vigilant and perpetually engaged in the ongoing work to expand liberty and justice for all.

A commemorative celebration and a perpetual charge Juneteenth beckons us to reflect and also to act.

In his biography, Dr. Wharton describes the day of Bill Clinton's DC inauguration, and that Maya Angelou was the poet laureate.

And so to conclude my remarks this evening, I turned to that great American poet, author, civil rights activist, Dr. Maya Angelou, who said, "I have great respect for the past.

"If you don't know where you're coming from, "you don't know where you're going.

"I have respect for the past, "but I'm a person of the moment.

"I'm here.

"And I do my best to be completely centered "at the place I'm at, "and then go forward to the next place."

To president and first lady Wharton, thank you for being an inspiration to us every day that we step on this campus.

To all of you who are working to light the pathway forward, thank you.

A university is indeed more than bricks and mortar.

It is you.

Dr. Bennett, I returned the podium back to you.

Thank you.

(audience applauding) - And to you Provost Woodruff, thank you so much again for your unwavering support for this event, as well, along with your leadership and your partnership in helping to move forward the very important work of diversity, equity, inclusion on this campus.

We're gonna shift gears a bit and I'll ask you to turn your attention to the screens here or to what is known as the video board above for a message from our students.

(upbeat music) - Black people have been subjugated to a very strict narrative of what blackness can look like.

- We weren't allowed to think about the future.

We were supposed to operate in the modes of the capacity that we're programmed to be in.

- I think Afrofuturism is a way of redefining blackness.

- To me, it means that it's the future of African American people.

It's a philosophy, it's a movement.

- I think about the creativity, the art, the visual arts we all have and talent and embody to put out to this world.

- It's very rare that we get to see black creatives in different roles, such as in sci-fi.

- From painting to singing and dancing, poetry.

- Fiction, novels.

- When you are trying to grow up in America, it's kind of hard to see that sometimes when you're surrounded by people that sometimes don't look like you.

- It means to me that the impossible being possible.

(upbeat music) - I would describe Afrofuturism as beautiful.

- Innovation.

- Inspirational.

- Community.

- Creative.

- Culture.

- Liberating.

- Betterment.

- Resilience.

- Loving.

- And black, culturally.

I see the future of Afrofuturism for black people all over the world as the endless possibility.

- More black creatives have the opportunity to showcase their skills and talent.

- Now we have the opportunities and the chances to research who we are and to make something of it.

- Understanding our history, understanding where we came from and how can we move forward.

- We all have these different professions and aspirations, but at the end of the day, who are you?

Once you know who you are, then you know what you can do and the possibilities are endless.

- Okay.

(audience applauding) Don't you just love hearing from our students.

All right.

And thank you, WKAR for your support as well for filming and editing this piece.

So at this time, I actually wanna welcome a couple of students who join us live and in person.

Two student leaders, the President of the Black Students Alliance, Marcus McDaniel Jr. And President of the Black Graduate Student Association, Antonio White.

(audience applauding) - Greetings and salutations everybody.

Go ahead.

- Greetings everybody, how y'all doing today?

- Oh, yours is long.

- Go ahead.

- Yes, I'll go ahead.

So to all those who do not know me, my name is Antonio White.

I am the current BGSA President at Michigan State University for the 2021, 22 academic school year.

And I'm also a graduate student in the neuroscience program here, so I'm going into my fourth year.

(audience applauding) The mission of the Black Graduate Student Association at Michigan State University is to produce conscious and competent African American professionals who want to utilize their education that will have a positive impact on the African American community, as well as society.

To my fellow black graduate students who I serve, continue to persevere in your endeavors, achieve your daily and professional goals and celebrate with your friends.

Also collaborate with those that have a similar mindset, so you can continue to build community.

To the MSU black community, I appreciate your love.

I appreciate your presence here at this university.

And let's just continue to show up and show out at different events.

To the MSU leadership, MSU, BGSA, we thank you for your leadership because you know, taking a leadership position, it requires a lot of time and effort.

But one thing that could be used or done to support RSO organizations on campus is allow us to gain access to the student population, both undergraduate and at a graduate level, so we can continue to find students who need to be a part of community.

(audience applauding) - Happy Juneteenth, to all of you.

We are gathered in celebration of our longed black excellence.

I want to give a quick round of applause to all of the students and fathers since Father's Day and Juneteenth fall on the same day this year.

So please give a quick round of applause.

(audience applauding) They did say you will be clapping a lot today.

They did say you'll be clapping a lot.

My name is Marcus McDaniel Jr.

I am a senior double majoring in human biology in neuroscience with a minor in cognitive sciences.

I am the President of the Black Students Alliance for the 2022, 2023 academic school year.

We aim to ensure the promotion of radical black love through collective advocacy, continual support, and results driven actions to redefine a black experience at Michigan State University.

We serve as the voice of the black community.

We stand for excellence and succeed through our passion.

And ultimately our hearts are dedicated to the community and justice for the rights we all deserve.

Today, we celebrate the freedom of African Americans.

I encourage and implore you to look at the various battles we have to overcome.

The commitment to rising above adversity runs through our veins, and we must recognize it.

To understand our future, we must understand our past.

After this acknowledgement, we must look within ourselves to the roadblock we face and find an answer through self-determination and the willingness to persevere.

To my students, you will face many problems and have to find a solution.

There are organizations to support you and provide a space for you to be involved and to ultimately find your home.

Recognize your resources and spaces.

There are organizations and events for almost everything you are interested in.

You may attend sporting events to find cultural based organizations that suit your specific needs, such as NABJ for journalism, NABU for aspiring accountants, and NSBE for our future engineers.

In addition to these organizations, come out to welcome black week and sporting events in the fall to discover more opportunities suited to your needs.

If you have not made it to the student services building, you must make it then utilize those resources.

Ultra shout out the Trio program, the Neighborhood Student Success Collaborative also known NSSC, the Office of Cultural Academic, also known as OCA, and any other resources that support the minoritized community.

To administration, I want to thank you for supporting this event today.

Michigan State University is full of resources, but as leaders and faculty of our community, we must ensure that our students are connected to accessible opportunities.

I want to quickly assert that we must provide more resources for minoritized students.

We are a community that can only be strengthened by our leadership who takes initiative.

With this being said, it is a necessity to keep the lines of communication open between administration and students to better support and understand minority plights.

I would love to thank the Juneteenth committee for hosting this event and allowing me to speak to y'all today, but I must leave you with a quote.

"If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you.

"If you're determined to learn, no one can stop you."

Thank you.

(audience applauding) - Thank you, President White and President McDaniel.

These students play very important roles on our campus and helping shape the university, not only through their advocacy, but through their action as well.

And we're grateful for that.

So now I'd like to introduce a video by Assistant Professor of History, Dr. Nikia Parker, who's an expert in 19th century US slavery, African American and American Indian history.

Dr. Parker could not be here with us today.

So she recorded some brief remarks to give an overview of the history of Juneteenth.

So please watch the monitors and the board.

- Good evening.

Thank you all for being present for the second annual celebration of Juneteenth, here at Michigan State University.

Last year, I was thrilled to attend and participate the inaugural festivities for this occasion.

And even though I can't be there in person this year, I am honored to contribute virtually.

So for the next few minutes, I'd like to talk about the history of Juneteenth, past celebrations, and the legacy of this special occasion for black Americans past and present.

Juneteenth is the oldest commemoration of the end of chattel slavery in the United States.

Enslaved black Americans were considered chattel, or movable property.

That means they could be and were bought, sold, insured, mortgaged, and willed as demonstrated by these images.

By 1860, just before the outbreak of the Civil War, the approximately 4 million people enslaved in the United States were worth 3.5 billion dollars, and that's in 1860 money.

Adjusted for today, some estimates are as high as 13 trillion dollars.

That is what is meant by the term chattel slavery.

Juneteenth commemorates the day that enslaved people in Texas, approximately 250,000 enslaved individuals, received the official word of emancipation.

Two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.

On June 19th, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger wrote into Galveston with troops and read General Orders No.

3.

The order stated in part, the people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.

How did freed people react to this news?

As you can imagine, joyously.

Felix Haywood, pictured here in this image, he was formally enslaved in San Antonio, Texas.

And he remembered decades later that everybody was singing.

He said we was all walking on golden clouds.

Hallelujah.

Everybody went wild.

We all felt like heroes, and nobody made us that way but ourselves.

We was free.

One of the most shameful aspects of chattel slavery was the domestic slave trade and the breaking up of families.

Family members being sold away from one another.

So after the Civil War and during the emancipation era, many black Americans made great efforts, spent much time and money to reassemble their families, to find their family members, even putting ads in local newspapers, decades after the Civil War had ended as you can see here.

Emancipation in the United States was a joyous, but also uncertain time.

Although national consciousness about Juneteenth was raised following protests over the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in 2020, culminating with the passage of Juneteenth as a national holiday last year, many black Americans have celebrated Juneteenth for over 150 years.

The first celebration started in the 1860s, in the state of Texas, as you probably guessed.

The Freedmen's Bureau sponsored the first official celebration in the capital city of Texas, Austin in 1867.

At this celebration, as in the others that followed there was dancing, rodeos, horseback riding, and barbecues.

These occasions also included church services and sermons, as well as recitations of famous speeches like black abolitionist, Frederick Douglas' speech "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?

", as well as the Emancipation Proclamation.

But these celebrations were also political in nature.

Black men and black women, who at that time did not have the right to vote, encouraged community members to get involved in states and local politics, and to achieve economic autonomy for themselves, their families, and their communities.

So to conclude this brief history of Juneteenth, I want to go back to Felix Haywood's poignant statement.

"We all felt like heroes, "and nobody made us that way but ourselves."

The 4 million emancipated black Americans were worth trillions of dollars in today's money, went into freedom with very little of material significance, even though they and their ancestors had toiled for centuries without any compensation.

Like Haywood, they realize that the momentous tasks of transitioning from slavery to freedom, reuniting family members, and building new lives and communities would fall mainly on their shoulders.

Nevertheless, they embrace these challenges.

As one historian eloquently stated, "black people had their own freedom dreams "of what their lives should look like after emancipation."

Today, may all of us take the time to honor the memory of the enslaved people and the legacy of their descendants, who still today fight to fulfill their own freedom dreams.

Thank you and enjoy Juneteenth.

(audience applauding) - We surely thank Dr. Parker for sharing that her expertise in enlightening all of us.

Now please allow me to introduce Dr. Stephen Anthony, director of the office of college access initiatives and university outreach engagement, and vice shared the faculty senate and steering committee.

Dr. Anthony's gonna share a bit of her story, regarding the significance of Juneteenth at MSU and how the campus wide celebration came to be.

Dr. Anthony.

(audience applauding) - Greetings, board of trustees, President Stanley, Provost Woodruff, and our beloved MSU community of family and friends.

In 1986, in my first job after college, I was transferred to Kansas City, Missouri.

A few months later, I was invited by friends to celebrate at the annual Juneteenth celebration.

What was Juneteenth, I asked.

I was totally stunned as I had never seen anything like it before.

Much like the beautiful job that has been done by Dr. Bennett and the planning committee here today.

(audience applauding) What a sight.

It was the most joyful celebration I had ever seen, and it changed my life forever.

It was the celebration of Juneteenth and upon learning of its meaning, I was brought to tears.

As I reflect upon the decision of the senior leadership of Michigan State University in the university's powerful acknowledgement of this holiday, today, I am humbled.

This forward thinking decision to honor the history of those of us of African descent on this day, in this manner, is so powerful.

Today we are again, reminded of our history and the many contributions of African Americans to this country.

Authentic and progressive citizens among us readily understand and acknowledge that history, our pride in those contributions.

Let us never forget that the railroads, the banking systems, the corporate structures, the highways, the farming and food systems, the textile production industry, the medical breakthroughs, institutions of higher learning, and many other institutions in this country were built upon the unpaid labor and through the blood and sweat of enslaved people.

We honor them.

Authentic and progressive citizens among us today also rejoice and celebrate that day in June of 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger announced to the slaves of Galveston, Texas, that the Emancipation Proclamation through President Abraham Lincoln had freed them two years prior.

Jubilee.

A couple of years ago, I seat with the Michigan State University senior leadership and the at large members of the faculty senate.

The significance of the Juneteenth holiday became a topic of conversation.

While the conversation began that day, it did not end that day.

Each of the board members, the president, and the provost were so gracious and they gave me their full attention as I shared the merits of a commemoration of the day that is widely recognized as the true independence day for African Americans.

Later in an ongoing conversation, I was able to share more with them.

One particular email contained a long favorite speech of mine.

"What to a Slave is the 4th of July" by the honorable illustrious and highly esteemed Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey Douglas.

I recommended at that time two versions of the speech, one by the descendants of Frederick Douglas and the other by James Earl Jones.

The speech which I invited board members to listen to, it emphasized the utter hypocrisy of the institution of slavery.

But that speech is one that I have always loved for that.

It is rife with irony, yet it pines for the sweetness of freedom and liberty, the well to do affluent culture, and even those poor whites of the time, who were still free men and women surely could not fathom or relate to the agony and the pain of the enslaved person that Douglas references in this speech.

In July of 1852, Frederick Douglas was the honored guest speaker at a meeting of a women's group, the Rochester Ladies Anti-slavery Society.

Now there was great irony for him and that he gave the speech on July 4th of that year.

His words were remarkable as he notes in his talk, the absolute irony of the July 4th holiday.

That speech began "what to a slave is your 4th of July?"

Douglas goes on to state later in the speech, "the blessings in which you this day rejoice "are not enjoyed in common.

"The rich inheritance of justice, "liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed "by your father's is shared by you, not by me.

"The sunlight that hath brought life and healing to you "has brought strife and death to me."

As additional context for African Americans in 1852, slavery was still very real in a lived experience for nearly all black people.

It was almost a joke that he would be asked to even speak when many of his brethren were not independent on any level.

He states woefully in his address to the Rochester Ladies Anti-slavery Society, I am not included.

Well, ladies and gentlemen today, this is a day of celebration that reaches deep down into our souls.

If one of us is enslaved, then we all are.

No one among us is free if others live in bondage.

It is a day of joy and liberation.

Anyone who truly believes in the principle of democracy who abhors bondage, while we readily acknowledge that there is still so much to be done in this society that we all are part of.

This Juneteenth is a day that is filled with overwhelmingly great promise for our children, our children's children, and their children.

The many allies of African Americans here today remind us that despite our differences, we bleed the same.

We cry the same.

We love the same.

And that in the laws of the spirit, we are charged to learn to live together and understand that we are in many ways the same.

Dr. Stanley, Dr. Woodruff, and esteemed members of the board, I also wish to thank you publicly.

For as soon after our conversations on this topic began, I was compelled to learn more about my own family heritage.

And I took a DNA test.

If you recall, I urge you to listen to two renditions of the famous speech, what to a slave.

One of those, as I shared, was taped by the descendants of Frederick Douglas.

After learning of hundreds of new relatives through my DNA journey, I was in for a great surprise that leaves me stunned still today.

I learned that the descendants of Frederick Douglas, whom I requested that you listened to were in fact connected to my own life and history.

As I sought to explore my heritage and meet new members of my newly found family, I was shocked to learn the news that I stand before you much as Dr. Nikia spoke about as the third great niece of the illustrious Frederick Douglass.

(audience applauding) Thank you MSU community for honoring this powerful moment for African Americans.

Thank you to the planning committee for an outstanding job on this beautifully event.

Thank you to the board.

Thank you, President Stanley.

Thank you, Dr. Woodruff.

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to advocate for this celebration with you, and through that moment, spurring me on to learn more about my own history as a descendant of slaves and now to write about it.

In closing, Juneteenth is a great day of celebration, unlike any other.

It is a holiday full of hope, of promise, and victory.

We will come through on the other side together, there are no coincidences.

We are together today, paying homage for a purpose through those that came before us, through their pain, and through their joy.

I speak peace, blessings, prosperity, and healing over each and every one of you today.

Thank you.

(audience applauding) - It's because of the tireless advocacy of folks like Dr. Anthony, that institutional change happens.

Thank you again for sharing that.

(audience applauding) She's truly a testament to the Spartan will.

And I'm just excited to be able to share this time and space with you actually witnessed that amazing history that she shared with us as well.

Quite remarkable.

It is now my great pleasure to introduce to you this year's keynote speaker, Dr. Julian Chambliss, who is a professor in the Department of English with a focus on popular culture, comics, and digital humanities.

His research interest focus on race, identity, and power in real and imagined urban spaces.

Dr. Chambliss teaches several courses on Afrofuturism.

And his engagement with the topic also spans across his research, public programming, as well as community outreach.

He's widely known for his scholarship on Afrofuturism, the black imaginary and black superheroes, especially within the Marvel cinematic universe, one of my favorites.

And he has a dedicated website called AfroFantastic, all one word.

So you can check that out.

Dr. Chambliss has an appointment in the MSU Department of History and is an endowed curator of history at the MSU museum, exploring the speculative tradition in African American intellectual and cultural history.

Some of his museum exhibitions and digital spaces have focused on community, belonging in identity, the impacts of black comic artists, and power in the American south.

And without further ado, please help me welcome Dr. Chambliss.

(audience applauding) - Well, I want to thank the committee for an opportunity to give this talk.

It's a great honor to have opportunity to talk to you about Afrofuturism at the Juneteenth celebration.

I'm going to go against all training I have, and try to be brief, even though I am gonna also be a little academic.

I wanna start with an essential point that I hope that you'll remember if you don't remember anything else that I say, and that is everyone here is the fulfillment of a dream.

The truth, that truth is validated by Afrofuturism and it's reinforced by Juneteenth.

The title of my talk is inspired by how Afrofuturism asks us to decenter Eurocentric ideas.

Now, thanks to the massive power to MSU PR machine, you probably have a pretty good sense of what I'm gonna say when I talk about a definition of Afrofuturism, but I'm gonna say it anyway, because I define Afrofuturism as an intersection between speculation and liberation inspired by black people.

And it tends to make science, technology, and knowledge creation in the hopes of creating a better future.

At the core of Afrofuturism is an emphasis on creating a more equitable system.

Now, the word itself ironically, was coined by a white theorist named Mark Dery.

His definition emphasized spec-fiction that treats African American themes and addresses African American concerns in the context of 20th century techno culture, and more generally African American syndication, that appropriates images of technology and prosthetically enhanced future might for want of a better term be called Afrofuturism.

That's a 1994 definition for sure.

It's crucial to understand, however, that Dery's path to that definition.

His thinking around that term is grounded in a historical reality of the black experience.

In his musings towards that word, he pointed out that African Americans are in a way, descendants of alien of abductees.

He talked about that black people inhabit a sci-fi nightmare where unseen and impassable force fields of intolerance frustrate their movements.

He points out that official histories wipe away all evidence of what they have done.

And perhaps more importantly, he points out how technology has been and continues to be brought to bear on black bodies in sinister ways.

In essence, he called the tension to the nature of society constructed with the hostile goal, with hostile goals toward black people at its very core.

Because of these circumstances however, Dery noted that, of course, black people must have other stories to tell about culture, technology, and things to come.

What we mean by Afrofuturism is speculation about the constructed nature of race and its implication in our world.

By people of African descent and how those black people and their speculation contends with the challenge of an unequal system in a sinister society.

Afrofuturism care about aliens, not simply because spaceships are cool.

They care because they see the parallels in black people's alienation and the system built on exploiting difference.

Over time, other theories have added to our understanding of this.

And one that I think is very important is Dr. Alondra Nelson, who currently serves as the Deputy Director of Science and Society for the Biden Administration.

She was an early theorist in Afrofuturism.

She made it clear that that word Afrofuturism actually describes a kind of black cultural production that has a long and important history, globally.

Her rise by Afrofuturism in the late 90s and early 2000s made it clear that the mythology of a color blind technological society linked to the rise of the internet was in fact, the first great lie of cyber culture.

And that race and gender questions will have to be addressed if we were to have a better future.

Her work offered a vital clarification because she argued Afrofuturism was a different view on modernity progress, which looked at that from the black perspective and thought about the subjective way that race is constructed in the global world.

Her insights allow us to understand that black artistic and cultural production is a way and a means of essentially interrupting some of these structures.

And it holds very important questions about the way that black people create different futures in everyday life.

If we disrupt these assumptions, what does it do?

I think the simple answer is that it creates a pathway to think about how knowledge is created, how knowledge is used to practice, and the ways our understanding of that practice shapes our hopes for the future.

My colleague Kentra Brooks often speaks of Afrofuturism as a theory of time.

Afrofuturism like her, tell us that the process of going back and recovering those things lost can lead to discoveries about ourselves and our world that can empower us to transform ourselves and our actions.

Afrofuturism does this by recognizing the impact of speculation about liberation in the present.

And that the past offers pathways to a completely different future.

The result is that time, our ideal of time in Afrofuturism is different.

Present, past, future is central to Afrofuturism.

That order is no accident.

Afrofuturism ask us to consider how time we experience today is a construction indebted to assumptions about control and exploitation linked to the past.

Yet they also call attention to the unknowable fact that those past lessons about control and exploitation are not good lessons.

Afrofuturism is asking us to think about the intent of the system we live in, because that is the first step to changing that system.

As contemporary scholars, activists, and artists engage in this work, a complex process of recovery that recognizes the legacy of black knowledge within everyday culture has come to the forefront of our public discourse.

We continue to discover how black practice offer new ways to understand the world we live in.

Our current moment is instructive, partly because we recognize that the new century cannot be like the old one.

The future we seek with greater health, greater stability, greater security for all will require new ideas and different actions.

We need new tools for the future.

And Afrofuturism is providing those tools.

A great Ghanaian-British scholar named Kodwo Eshun actually describes Afrofuturism as a toolkit that allows us to recover the history of color futures created in a time hostile to black people.

I would put it to you that Juneteenth is part of that kind of future toolkit.

On the surface, it is as simple and somewhat drawn reality about the messages of freedom and how it traveled.

But Juneteenth is also the celebration of a great wrong that decenters the narrative about history and takes into account the way African Americans see the transformation of the country.

It moves the center away from white institutions and white perspectives to black people and their institution, their communities, and their efforts of transformation.

From the black perspective, this new story emphasizes the end of a horrible wrong.

It reminds us that black Americans might well celebrate the end of injustice that runs counter to every idea that our republic says it stands on.

It reminds us that we can hold in high esteem, the actions of people, black and white, who advocated for justice in the face of public scorn.

Juneteenth is a reminder that black speculation about the future always ask questions about what the future can hold if we practice the full meaning of those ideas that we believe as Americans.

It's for this reason that Afrofuturism and Juneteenth make the perfect connection.

I thank you for your time and happy Juneteenth.

(audience applauding) - Thank you so much, Dr. Chambliss, really appreciated that enlightening talk and we all learned something from that for sure.

And hopefully we're inspired too.

And now I'd like to thank the numerous sponsors who made this event possible.

We had over 30 sponsors, they're listed in your program and you may also see them on the screens here.

And let's give them a hand.

Let's give them a hand.

(audience applauding) This event would not have been possible without their contributions to bring it to this venue and feature all the festivities that are in store for the rest of the evening.

This year, we felt it was appropriate to highlight and celebrate other contributions, those of African American and black executive and administrative leaders, who again contribute to this campus every day of the year.

And as this is an exhaustive list, we decided to identify those of individuals who began serving in their current roles during the current or most recent academic year, since the nation and the university have begun to recognize Juneteenth.

You'll see some of these names printed as well and on the screens now.

And I'll just ask if any of you are here, who joined us in the last year, or this year who are serving in these roles.

If you're in the audience, could you just stand in to be recognized.

And let's just give 'em all a hand as well.

(audience applauding) Thank you.

And I'm in that group too, so I appreciate that.

Okay.

You didn't have to clap for me.

So finally, I wanna give a recognition to the featured artist, Lillian Young.

So Lillian is the one who's responsible for the image that you've seen as we've talked about and promoted the event.

She just received her MFA from MSU.

Yeah.

(audience applauding) And it's with a certification in museum studies.

Lillian designed the Afrofuturism Juneteenth Dream main artwork and her works have appeared in galleries across the United States.

She earned her BFA in Studio Art with the emphasis in art education at Texas Christian University.

And is the 2017 and 2018 recipient of the Smithsonian Minority Award.

Yeah.

(audience applauding) In addition, she won the Texas Christian University Langan Award for undergraduate research and creative activity and served as the 2020, 2021 cultural heritage informatics fellow here at MSU.

(audience applauding) Lillian has worked at various national museums and galleries and is currently serving as the family programs coordinator at the Brooklyn Museum of Arts.

And for those of you who participated last year, her name may be familiar as she was the contributing artist for the inaugural celebration.

And please allow me before we recognize her and give the award to someone who is here in her place, let me read a segment from her artist's statement, which you can find on the Juneteenth webpage.

But here's what she writes, "Within the dream like space in this work, "in the background are different photos of black elders "from MSU and the Lansing area.

"Some of the photos are from a local Lansing newspaper "that ran in the 1970s.

"From the stars, these elders and ancestors "look on to today's generation.

"The figures in the foreground are a combination "of my own figure drawings "and photos from the 2022 MSU "black students association yearbook.

"So for me, Juneteenth was kind of a start of the notion "of Afrofuturism.

"For the first time, those enslaved were free.

"And with that freedom came the dream "of a better future and for their descendants."

So on behalf of Michigan State University, I present to Ms. Young this certificate, recognizing her contribution.

And while she's not able to be here with us in person, she may be watching via live stream, so thank you.

And Simone Boone is here to accept the award on Lillian's behalf.

(audience applauding) And I'll note that Simone's grandfather is actually one of the elders in the background on the picture.

And he's the founder of the newspaper from where many of the photos were referenced.

So another hand for Simone as well and her family.

(audience applauding) So finally, I'd like to end to recognize two people who were pivotal in orchestrating this year's celebration, the MSU Juneteenth celebration planning committee co-chairs.

The event would not have been possible without the leadership of Stratton Lee, President of the Black Faculty and Staff and Administrative Association here at MSU.

And Julie Soche, Senior Director of Content Communications at WPKR public media.

And thank you for allowing me to host the event this evening and now Stratton and Julie, come on up.

(audience applauding) - Thank you, Dr. Bennett.

We're gonna start out with some raffle tickets, raffle drawings.

If you have your tickets, please grab them out.

We're gonna do two drawings right now.

Three drawings.

Oops.

Ready?

All right.

First ticket number is 958250.

Do we have a winner?

958250.

If you're a winners, raise your hand.

All right.

We have one prize for you.

We'll get that to you in a minute.

Oh there's a gray ticket.

I believe you have multiple tickets.

This is a gray one we're looking at.

All right.

And by the way, this is an apron, a Michigan state apron.

The next ticket, 958207.

That's 958207.

Do we have a winner?

Did I hear a winner.

Okay, we'll try another ticket then.

958754.

958754.

This is for a Michigan state duffle bag.

Any winners?

(everyone laughing) Sure.

We'll try another ticket.

All right, 958312.

958312.

All right, we have a winner.

And then the final drawing for right now is a signed basketball by Coach Izzo.

Yeah, here we go.

958355.

You got it?

Nine, is that yours?

958355.

Congratulations, everybody.

(audience applauding) - All right.

So we are the last thing standing between you and a picture with Sparty and food.

And so we are going to get through this last portion very quickly.

So.

Sorry, whew, good evening to you all.

My name is Stratton Lee and I have the pleasure of serving as one of this year's Juneteenth planning committee co-chairs along with Julie Soche.

We wanna first acknowledge the support of our university leaders, including those on the platform today for recognizing the necessity of an MSU Juneteenth celebration.

We thank the vice president and chief diversity officer Dr. Jabbar Bennett for his commitment as executive sponsor for ensuring that MSU has an engaging Juneteenth experience.

We also extend our deepest thanks to the Juneteenth planning committee members with your countless hours of work and commitment, your sacrifice of personal time to make sure we got things just right.

And for always giving your best, even when you were tired.

Thank you.

We truly appreciate you.

(audience applauding) Additionally, we want to thank all of our sponsors.

Your support has helped to create a free community wide event that has reached hundreds of local, state, and out-of-state guests, hi family.

We extend our gratitude to the Breslin Center for their efforts and in kind donations toward making this an amazing event.

And we also thank the Kellogg staff for their support today and throughout the process.

Thank you to all of the MSU athletics, Spartan vision, WKER alumni office, and university communications staff for helping with all of the additional technical aspects for today, including our videos, live stream, and digital signage.

We salute our 2022 Juneteenth artist, Lillian Young for her striking visual design, which for me tells a story of jubilation, dreams realized, and the manifestation of hope that once felt deferred.

We are our ancestors wildest dreams.

Thank you Lilian.

(audience applauding) Thank you Dr. Julian Chambliss for being a consultant on this year's event.

And of course, for being our speaker today.

To the vendors, artists, and performers here tonight, thank you all for responding to the call and sharing your skills, services, products, talents, and giftings with the MSU community.

Your presence alone reinforces the need and value of inclusion of black businesses that, can, do, and will support the needs across MSU.

All, please invest into a black owned business today.

We want to thank everyone of you that are here in person and all of our virtual guests.

Without you and your interest in learning, celebrating, and connecting, we would not be here.

As members of the community, you help drive the intentions of the university.

And we thank you for driving us toward being a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive university for all.

Finally, as president of our MSU Black Faculty, Staff Administrator's Association, I want to provide some closing remarks.

Though today is a moment to commemorate and celebrate the legacy of freedom and liberation for previously enslaved African Americans and their descendants, we must also recognize the ease of this moment.

We live in a time where it's easy to come together for an event, while lacking the personal commitment and convictions to create change within policy, practice, or the willingness to even make cultural shifts necessary for true inclusion.

I encourage all of you to remember chattel slavery lasted 246 years.

Our ancestors fought through it all.

It wasn't easy.

And though it did end, we still fight even the more.

For 149 years, black people and our allies fought to increase and expand our freedom in citizenship.

It wasn't easy.

And we are still fighting for freedom, justice, and liberation today.

We advocated for ourselves through reconstruction.

We fought against the black codes designed to restrict black people's activities.

We worked to win the right to vote.

We had to negotiate a time of separate but equal.

We created new sounds and visual narratives during the Harlem Renaissance.

We fought for our country in World War II.

We fought against school segregation.

We fought to marry those that we loved, and those who loved us, whether black or white.

We fought for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect against discrimination based on race, religion, sex, or national origin.

We fought for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to overcome the legal barriers at the state and local levels preventing black people from voting.

So yes, we celebrate because we have overcome.

Yes, it's not easy.

We must speak truth to power, fight for our rights, and advocate for our interests.

And yes, we do envision a future where all those of the African diaspora are self actualized, free to be able to live and learn while making mistakes, living as our fullest, most authentic selves, expressing black joy and creativity.

So please make the personal commitment to fight, advocate, celebrate, and live relentlessly for justice so that we may all share the same inalienable rights, acts of justice, quality of education, services and supports regardless of class, gender, or color.

Thank you.

(audience applauding) - Thank you, Stratton.

Stratton mentioned I'm Julie Soche and it's been my absolute pleasure serving as one of this year's Juneteenth planning committee co-chairs, along with Stratton.

This year's event could not have been possible without the tireless leadership of our planning committee.

We thank you all for your time, skill, and passion.

I also want to thank our MSU leaders for recognizing the importance of the celebration.

Your support and collective efforts help us all to respectfully remember the history of Juneteenth while also focusing on the jubilation that the future brings for our black and African American communities.

The theme Afrofuturism reflects the many discussions, hopes, and dreams that came from numerous hours of planning.

Thank you, Dr. Chambliss for sharing your insight on Afrofuturism and igniting inspiration within our community in all of today's attendees and with our livestream viewers during your presentation this evening.

I challenge all of you to take what you've seen, heard, and experienced tonight, and seek to learn more as you work to apply new ideas and concepts across your life experience.

Now just a few final notes, and then we can get onto what's next.

In just a moment, the Spartan jazz quinte over here, we'll close our program with another wonderful musical expression.

Once the performance is done, please join us on the concourse level to engage with the many vendors, artists, performers, such as IWild at 7:00 PM tonight, our black wall street vendors, and Harlem Renaissance areas.

You'll receive your dinner and dessert by visiting any of the open concession stands with your meal tickets.

And yes, I just saw him.

You can also take pictures with the big man himself, Sparty.

At 7:30, we'll meet all back in this arena area for some music and dancing with DJ Maven to close out this year's jubilation.

Our remaining drawing will occur at 7:45 PM, so have your gray tickets with you and you do not wanna miss for your chance to win an iPad.

To our online viewers, thank you for watching.

And to all of you here today, thank you for being here tonight.

(audience applauding) (smooth jazz music)