It’s a day of joy and celebration. It’s about finding out we were free.
A few drops of rain weren’t going to ruin Kwabena Antoine Nixon’s joyous Juneteenth mood.
The nationally known spoken word artist, writer, educator and motivational speaker took the short drizzle on Tuesday, June 16, as a good omen as Milwaukee Area Technical College students, faculty, staff and administrators raised the Juneteenth flag to commemorate the day enslaved people were told they had been set free by the Emancipation Proclamation.
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“I wasn’t worried about the rain,” Nixon told the crowd assembled at the college’s Downtown Milwaukee Campus. “In some way, that is our ancestors talking to us. You can stand in the rain. You can endure the rain because it doesn’t flood the streets; it makes strong crops.”
Juneteenth recognizes June 19, 1865, when Gen. Gordon Granger of the Union Army arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced that all slaves in the state were free. This announcement came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863.
“This is a celebration of life. And with the time and the climate we live in, we need to celebrate,” Nixon told the crowd. “Sometimes people like to celebrate our pain, but they very seldom like to celebrate our joy. So it’s a day of joy and celebration. It’s about finding out we were free.”
Juneteenth became an official federal holiday in 2021. The holiday aligns perfectly with MATC’s mission to welcome and support all students, said Courtney Kelly, career services coordinator and chairperson of the college’s Juneteenth committee.
“For us, education is the same as liberation. We are equitable and inclusive to all,” Kelly said. “MATC is proud of this legacy.”
MATC’s Juneteenth flag will fly beneath the City of Milwaukee flag through June 22.
The Juneteenth flag was designed in 1997 by Ben Haith, an activist and founder of the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation, and illustrated by Lisa Jeanne Graf. It is red and blue with a symbolic white star and sunburst in the middle, representing the bright beginnings of freedom for all.
After the flag was lifted, Nixon performed an emotional spoken word poem, calling out and recognizing great Black activists, writers and artists like Alex Hailey, Fred Hampton, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks and Langston Hughes.
Dana Cooper-Davis, prepress technician in the college’s printing department, read a resolution of appreciation from the college's Office of Student Engagement and Community Impact for Margaret Henningsen, who is often hailed as the mother of Milwaukee’s Juneteenth celebration.
In 1971, Henningsen honored Juneteenth with a small gathering on Third Street. Fifty-five years later, that neighborhood event has grown into one of the largest civil justice celebrations in the nation.
Milwaukee will celebrate Juneteenth on Friday, June 19, with parades, festivals, live music, dance performances, delicious cuisine, educational workshops and historical exhibitions.
Equan Burrows, dean of student experience, encouraged MATC students, faculty and staff to participate in the festivities.
“Juneteenth calls us to honor freedom — not as a moment but as a continuous journey,” Burrows said. “This is a day all about freedom and celebrating freedom, even when it’s delayed.”
About MATC: Wisconsin’s largest technical college and one of the most diverse two-year institutions in the Midwest, Milwaukee Area Technical College is a key driver of southeastern Wisconsin’s economy and has provided innovative education in the region since 1912. More than 35,000 students per year attend the college’s four campuses and community-based sites or learn online. MATC offers affordable and accessible education and training opportunities that empower and transform lives in the community. The college offers more than 180 academic programs — many that prepare students for jobs immediately upon completion and others that provide transfer options leading to bachelor’s degrees with more than 45 four-year colleges and universities. Overwhelmingly, MATC graduates build careers and businesses in southeastern Wisconsin. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
