Today we celebrate freedom, and also the work that still remains.

Happy Juneteenth. 

Sara Rubin here, still feeling good today on Juneteenth, five days after I attended the Monterey County Black Caucus’ celebration in Seaside. It was a proper party to celebrate the hard-won freedom finally granted to Black Americans who literally built the foundations of the United States of America as enslaved people, bought and sold and brutalized by other humans who owned them. 

The audience was rapt as Mistah F.A.B. took to the stage, but before he began performing, he delivered a poignant speech that captured the current moment. “There is nothing illegal about being human,” he said, expressing solidarity with immigrants from all over the planet who now face daily dehumanization and criminalization. From the stage, he held up his middle fingers to ICE. 

He loosely quoted Martin Luther King Jr. to say: “Injustice to one is an injustice to all…It is the silence of people I call brothers and friends that scare me the most.”

“Power to the people! The power in the people is more important than the people that are in power. Now let’s get on with this rap show—I just had to get that off my chest.” 

And the rap show brought the audience to their energetic dancing feet, especially when 7-year-old Junie Ma, wearing a hot pink jacket, got on stage to perform “So Fresh.” 

Mistah F.A.B.’s remarks in many ways captured the essence of the moment: A celebration of how far our country has come, putting Black culture and excellence front and center for a festive and joyous day. 

But the event coincided with No Kings protests happening in Salinas and Monterey, and with thousands of others nationwide, as people rose up in a chorus to oppose the policies of President Donald Trump. As much as there is to celebrate, there is also much more work to do. 

“It’s bittersweet,” says Robert Daniels, an organizer with Building Healthy Communities, which partnered with the Black Caucus to sponsor the event. “We must continue to build community so we can stand in solidarity against more atrocities.” 

Remembering the atrocities we have already endured as a nation is a meaningful historical lens. It’s a reminder that even when it feels like two steps forward and one step backward, we’ve made progress—and we owe it to ourselves to celebrate that.