This Juneteenth, I have more questions than ever before. Perhaps there was a time this holiday seemed like a chance for jubilation. This time it feels like a moment to pause and reflect.

Today, as we stand at the precipice of what was and what could be, I have been thinking about what liberation means. How do you get free in a world that seems determined to entrap you in its simple frivolities? And where do you find peace when all around you is uncertainty?

I wonder if our heroes have found freedom. Is Harriet free yet? She led others out of slavery, but has her soul found rest? When she looks back at us, at those who remain on this earth, is her spirit at ease?

Has Martin found freedom? Or Medgar? Or Malcolm? Or Nat? Or Shirley? Now that they are not tethered to the challenges of this side of life, and their daily fights on behalf of their people are in the past, can they rest? I wonder if they say to themselves, ‘Well done’ or if they struggle with how much work still needs to be done.

For answers, I seek the words of our ancestors.

“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free”

~ Fannie Lou Hamer

Activist Fannie Lou Hamer said, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

If my freedom is tied to yours, then the work does not end until we collectively know, without question, that we are free. It’s not enough for me to live well if I can still see your struggle.

Can you get free without enough money? Probably not. As the world reportedly sees its first trillionaire, too many others find upward mobility to be far out of reach. If you are working full-time and unable to feed yourself or your family, that is not the type of freedom that most would imagine. Looking upon the faces of your hungry children after a hard day’s work is likely not the freedom many loving parents have in mind.

Poet Audre Lorde said, “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”

As some women are conversing about giving up their personal right to vote in favor of a household vote, I wonder (and suspect I know) where such a choice will lead. Women have yet to achieve full pay equity or bodily autonomy, yet some women are poised to relinquish the few gains that have been achieved.

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed,” Martin Luther King, Jr. notably said.

Our predecessors moved, but we forgot how to make a movement. They rebelled, but we forgot how to stand together. They coordinated their efforts for years in private spaces, and we forgot how to collaborate toward a specific goal, and we have not yet clearly defined what our goal is.

Some say freedom is in the knowledge we hold. There is more and quicker access to information now than there ever was before, yet so many of us are missing portions of our shared cultural history, our triumphs and the means to tap into our collective ancestral knowledge.

“The function of freedom is to free someone else.”

~ Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison said, “The function of freedom is to free someone else.”

The Emancipation Proclamation did not only free the enslaved, but it also freed the enslavers. Slavery’s abolishment freed America from being a nation defined by barbarism and terrorism. Enslaving other human beings requires an extreme level of violence or an extreme willingness to look the other way.

America could not be the land of law and civility while still embroiled in daily torture and terror. Ending slavery ushered in the possibility that America could be a civilized nation.

We are all, and I mean all, descendants of survivors. There was someone in our lineage, generations ago who faced a near-impossible decision — a choice between giving in and pressing on. Because they decided to press on, we are here.

What we can decide now is if we are the ones who will press on for the generations who will come after us. We must decide what world we will create for them, even when we can only imagine it. We won’t be there in a hundred years to see their achievements, but they need us now. They need us to keep moving toward their liberation.

In the words of James Baldwin, “Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.”

I wonder if Sojourner finally feels free. Is she crying out for those Black women who were unceremoniously eliminated for the workforce after years of education, qualification and dedication? Or is she somewhere smiling down at First Lady Michelle Obama or Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and the many others who have attained heights she possibly could not have imagined?

Just like those that came before us, who inched toward a freedom that they would not live to see, we are here to be that which our descendants need. How free do we want them to be?

When I think of freedom for those that will come after me, I think of carefree days and nights, restful sleep, loud laughter and shining eyes —the kind you only have when you know you will be alright.

I imagine people who are born free from the burdens of all the “isms” and free to choose how they will spend their days. As Toni Morrison said, “Freedom is choosing your responsibility. It’s not having no responsibilities; it’s choosing the ones you want.”