Opinion: Juneteenth and the meaning of freedom

Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom – not only because slavery ended, but because possibility began.

For generations after emancipation, Black Americans fought not only for legal freedom, but for the freedom to own homes, build businesses, vote, receive an education and build economic security for their families. Every generation expanded the meaning of freedom because every generation understood that dignity requires opportunity.

That struggle raises an important question this Juneteenth: What does freedom look like today?

In 2026, freedom must mean more than survival. It must mean the ability to afford a good life.

I have said throughout my career in public service that government has a simple responsibility: lower costs for working families. Keep our neighborhoods safe. Ensure every child has a fair shot at success. That responsibility is not separate from the story of Juneteenth. It is the continuation of it.

As the daughter of union workers in Queens who believed deeply in the promise of this city and this country, I know that lesson personally. My parents’ sacrifices made it possible for me to attend one of the top HBCUs in the country, Spelman College, and ultimately become the first Black speaker of the New York City Council. Today, as I fight to become New York's first elected Black woman lieutenant governor, I still stand on the shoulders of my mother and father, a union truck driver and corrections officer who worked long hours to build a better future for their family.

That is what Juneteenth reminds us: progress is not inevitable. It is hard fought and earned by generations of people who refused to accept limits on what their children can achieve.

Today, New Yorkers are still fighting for freedom. They want the freedom to let their children play on the sidewalk, knowing they are safe. They want the freedom to get what they need from the grocery store and put a roof over their heads. The freedom to go to work knowing their children will be well cared for, and the freedom to go to the doctor without constantly worrying about whether the math will work at the end of the month.

As speaker of the New York City Council, I saw those struggles firsthand. When working families were being priced out of their own neighborhoods, we fought for affordable housing.

When parents struggled to find care they could trust and afford, we expanded access to childcare. When families needed support, we fought to deliver it.

Because affordability is not merely an economic issue. It is a freedom issue. A parent working two jobs who still cannot afford childcare is not fully free.

A senior choosing between food and medicine is not living with the dignity they deserve. 

That is the freedom Governor Hochul and I are fighting for.

Juneteenth also reminds us that history matters: how we remember it, and how we honor it, and who we honor it with.

Some, like our opponent Bruce Blakeman, refuse to recognize Juneteenth at all. In one of the most diverse counties in America, he has chosen division over a simple act of recognition and respect for Black Americans. At a moment when New Yorkers want to come together to celebrate the expansion of freedom, Bruce Blakeman’s Nassau County refuses to participate.

But Juneteenth should not be controversial. It is not a Democratic holiday or a Republican

holiday. It is an American holiday. And there’s nothing more American than celebrating freedom. Juneteenth is ultimately about more than looking to the past. It is about asking whether we are creating a future worthy of the sacrifices that came before us.

Are we expanding opportunity? Are we ensuring that children have the tools they need to thrive? Are we building communities that are safe, affordable and welcoming? 

Less than two centuries ago, Black Americans were denied their freedom. Today, New Yorkers have the opportunity to put in office the first elected Black woman lieutenant governor in our state's history as part of New York's first all-women major party ticket. That progress belongs not to one person, but to generations of Americans who refused to settle for the status quo and fought to leave their children a better future.

Their work made my story possible. The question before us now is whether we will do the same for the next generation. Because the promise of Juneteenth was never simply freedom from injustice. It was the freedom to build the life that we all deserve.