My Childhood Juneteenth Memories

That familiar repugnant smell always managed to creep under my closed bedroom door and into my nostrils once a year during the month of June.  Despite my dislike of the smell, I would always get excited as I knew what that meant as far as our family tradition – it symbolized it was June 19th also known as Juneteenth.  This was the day my family would celebrate annually each year and that smell, which served as a reminder to me of the importance of that day every June, was the smell of my mom cleaning chitterlings (better known as “chitlins”) as she would get up early and prepare them as part of the celebratory feast that night.  Chitlins were commonly eaten by slaves, as the intestines of a pig were deemed not worthy of a slavemaster’s dining table.  Although I didn’t enjoy the smell resulting from the cleaning process of chitlins, I did enjoy eating chitlins every time my mom cooked them.

Some of my fondest childhood memories stem from my family's annual tradition to celebrate the glorious day of Juneteenth.  What makes Juneteenth so remarkable and worthy of African-American families like mine as well as others to rejoice with traditional food, music, and camaraderie?  The holiday stems back to January 1, 1863, the day that President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which legally declared that all enslaved people in the Confederate states were freed from the chains of slavery.  Two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation and free slaves in the state.  When the news finally made it to Texas, the newly liberated African-Americans celebrated by music, dance, prayer, and community feasts.  Juneteenth was first deemed a holiday by the state of Texas in 1980 to celebrate the end of slavery in the United States and has since been deemed an annual state holiday in all other states other than Hawaii, North Dakota, and South Dakota.  Juneteenth finally became a federal holiday on June 17, 2021.

In some major cities, large festivals and parades are held to celebrate Juneteenth while many families celebrate the holiday in their own homes and backyards.  My family of eight would gather around the table on Juneteenth and eat a number of traditional foods, including chitlins, fried chicken, barbeque, watermelon, red soda, and collard greens.  Red foods are traditional on this holiday as the red symbolizes the blood that was lost as slaves struggled for emancipation. In West Africa, the color of red also serves as a symbol of spirituality, strength, life, and death.

In addition to the family fun and medley of foods eaten on this day, the day serves as a reminder of measuring progress against freedom and aspiring to continue the march toward racial equity and racial uplift.  Specifically, when I was growing up in our household, on Juneteenth, we would recall the racial strife my family endured when we first moved into our home when I was in fifth grade. Within one week of moving into the all-white neighborhood in the Dallas suburb, we woke up one morning to the sprawling of napkins in our front yard with the words “You N-word” scribbled on them. During our celebrations, we would often discuss that fateful morning of this racial hate and discuss the progress we still must make in connection with racial injustices. In that same vein, a renewed interest in the holiday that celebrates freedom has grown after the nationwide protests resulting from the tragic deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and too many others.

In many ways, my family's Juneteenth tradition helped shape me and aid in my desire to co-found a company, Kanarys, whose mission is to create more equitable workplaces.  Juneteenth is not only a day in which we should celebrate, but should also leverage as a day to speak out and continue to shine a spotlight on the societal disparities that exist in our Black and Brown communities.  It is not until this country achieves racial equity that we can truly celebrate complete freedom on Juneteenth. In the meantime, we should all use this day to continue to fight the good fight for equity, and celebrate the wins along the way. 

Kanarys is Your DEI Champion

At Kanarys, we are the diversity, equity, and inclusion people with the data-driven approach. Since 2018, Kanarys has aimed to change the world by creating equitable workplaces where everyone belongs. We guide your organization’s DEI path every step of the way with courage and collaboration. It starts with data, analytics and insights, and continues with recommendations and implementation. 

Our mission, as your partner and champion in the ever-evolving DEI journey: Help you understand what it takes to foster lasting, systemic change today and for tomorrow. Because when you succeed with DEI, your employees can thrive—and so can your organization.

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Starlett (Star) Carter (she/her/hers) is an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as the Chief Operating Officer, General Counsel, and co-founder of Kanarys, Inc. 

As a woman who experienced harassment early in her career, Star is passionate about ensuring the workplace is safe and equitable for all employees, free from judgment, and inclusive of the aspects that make individuals unique as it relates to their sexuality, gender, religion, age, ability and race.

Given her work with Kanarys and daily discussions with C-suite executives to discuss their DEI efforts, Star truly has her finger on the pulse of diversity, equity, and inclusion  in corporate America.

Star received her Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Business Administration with honors from the University of Texas at Austin. She resides in Dallas, Texas, with her husband and two children.