As Elon University prepares for Juneteenth, three faculty members in leadership roles with the Committee on History & Memory and the Black Lumen Project offer this reflection on the holiday, work underway at Elon and work yet to be done to move toward racial equity.
The joy of Juneteenth always carries a shadow. Black Americans in June 1865 found freedom sweet only because of centuries of inhumane bondage. Moreover, June 19 represented not the swift arm of justice but the slow delay of white supremacy. White Texans had refused to emancipate enslaved people even after the surrender of Confederate armies in April and May and held onto their power until the last moment. The holiday thus invites both celebration and sober reflection.
The complexity of Juneteenth is not limited to the crosscurrents of joy and grief, but also the impossible multiplication of storylines. Gen. Gordon Granger may have issued his proclamation on June 19, but Black Americans — as they had done throughout the war — still needed to seize the freedom offered to them by standing up to their erstwhile owners, fleeing their homes or finding new allies. Emancipation came to Texas not all at once, but in 250,000 stories of human courage.
Last year marked the first national and federal recognition of Juneteenth, 156 years after the last enslaved Black Americans were notified of their freedom. Elon seized this historic moment to announce one of our institution’s equity initiatives, The Black Lumen Project, which focuses on the Black communities, experiences and history that create Black institution at the university. The creation of the Black Lumen Project was one of the central recommendations made by the Committee on Elon History and Memory in its October 2020 report. After three years of meetings and study, the committee released a report that detailed 10 episodes from Elon’s past that represented white supremacist ideals or specific acts of anti-Black racism as well as moments of resistance and resilience among Elon’s Black community.
While implementation of some of the recommendations from the report has been slowed by competing priorities, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing crises of racism and violence experienced by Black, Brown and Indigenous communities, staff, faculty, students and alumni have used the report as a fulcrum for change. A website that serves as home for the report, for example, has expanded to include teaching resources designed by faculty for use in Elon courses. New archival information has been added to bolster evidence for the 10 episodes. The website also includes examples of mentored undergraduate research and work-study projects sparked by the report, as well as news, updates and corrections shared by the broader Elon community. Work is underway on campus tours, both virtual and in-person, that will include and examine episodes from the report. We hope important next steps will include community-engaged naming policies that recognize and center the Black experience at Elon.
In its inaugural year, The Black Lumen Project also generated opportunities for dialogue, learning and reflection on Black experiences at Elon. In February the director of the Black Lumen Project, Associate Professor Buffie Longmire-Avital, facilitated a creative session on identifying what Black joy and wellness is at Elon during the annual Black Solidarity Day Conference. In collaboration with the Center for Teaching and Learning (CATL) and the Office of Professional Development, the Black Lumen Project sponsored a session for faculty and staff of color with Roxanne Donovan, founder of WellAcademic. The session and space centered the experience of people of color in the workplace, how to create boundaries, balance and sustained well-being while continuing to be dynamic contributors to the institution’s unprecedented growth.
Juneteenth creates an opportunity to acknowledge the history of forced as well as inequitable Black labor in our nation, while concurrently offering a challenge to organizations and institutions to acknowledge the work that Black colleagues continue to do in the pursuit of access and equity for all.
Among the many storylines at Elon that deserve further attention are those related to Black labor, and the ways that this labor has gone unseen, unheralded and, at times, undermined. The life and legacy of Pinkney Comer, for instance, demand further study — from the contradiction between the Elon tradition that he was a beloved, full-time employee to the census taker’s conclusion that he worked “odd jobs,” to the search for additional information about his tragic death in 1920.
A key recommendation from the History and Memory report was the establishment of a formal recognition (or commemoration) of Black labor at Elon. This must include exploration of people like Pinkney Comer, who lived more than a century ago, all the way up to people working at Elon today. Central to the work of uplifting and sustaining racial equity is to embrace the complexity of Black history at Elon, as it contains more storylines than any one report can hold.
As higher education continues to grapple with the “Great Resignation,” a deeper focus on labor and equity is needed. The Black Lumen Project and the Committee on Elon History and Memory are dedicated to uplifting, advocating and sustaining dialogue among all constituents on the Black labor that has and will continue to shape Elon University.
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Buffie Longmire-Avital is an associate professor of psychology and director of the Black Lumen Project. Charles Irons is the William J. Story Sr. Professor, professor of history, and past chair and current member of the Committee on Elon History and Memory. Evan Gatti is an associate professor of art history and the 2021-22 chair of the Committee on Elon History and Memory.