How Juneteenth brought together a Southern Dallas church and the Latter-day Saints

Photos courtesy of Joe Carbone Photography

Sometimes an obstacle course is not a metaphor for life. Sometimes it’s a rented red, blue, and yellow inflated affair with bolsters and squeeze tunnels, rock-climbs, and rush-to-the-finish slides.

On June 16, 2016, Paster Karen Hollie hosted a Juneteenth celebration at Lifeway Church. She watched as two people struggled out of the event’s obstacle course, laughing and embracing to applause. One was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the other a Muslim. Both had come for fun, the food, and the community connections. To her, they were the picture of Juneteenth’s message: Unity.

In the following years, Latter-day Saint congregants and those at Lifeway welcomed each other to their celebrations. Lifeway members are known for their cakes, so they supplied many for the popular cakewalks. This year’s Juneteenth event included 40 cakes, and both groups offered songs during a brief bit of quiet: “Lift Every Voice and Sing” from the Lifeway repertoire and “I am a Child of God” from the LDS hymnal.

Neither side proselytizes at these events. Friends offer examples, not preaching. Latter-day Saint members—including the youth—have worked together with Lifeway on service projects and hope to do more. Fun is good; helping brothers and sisters in need is better.

Latter-day Saints are known for self-reliance as well as service. Learning how to make that happen includes a series of classes on such topics as personal finance, education for a better job, and emotional resilience. Lifeway members were the first non’LDS participants worldwide to sponsor courses at their own facility.

Family history, another Church of Jesus Christ focus, can be difficult for Black Americans, both logistically and emotionally. In 2005, the Church of Jesus Christ announced the availability of 1.5 million digitized records bearing 4 million names of formerly enslaved people. The records came from the Freedmen’s Bureau, a rich source of information held for decades in the National Archives. Naturally, local friends helped local friends learn how to access these and other materials. Hollie found some of her own ancestors.

Retired African archbishop Desmond Tutu often spoke of this connectedness between people. He translated the Bantu term Ubuntu as “I am because we are.” Tutu extends the idea of “No man is an island” and urges us to be “welcoming, hospitable, warm and generous, willing to share.” Friendships can begin unpredictably, but they thrive when continued intentionally.  

Last week, the U.S. Senate passed a bill establishing Juneteenth as a national holiday. It will bring the number of federal holidays to just 11. The date has particular significance in Texas: In 1865, the enslaved here learned of the Emancipation Proclamation, a full two-and-a-half years after it was signed. It is appropriate, then, that this day—when the last in the country were freed—should be celebrated.

Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech included his emphasis on “all God’s children.” None of us can be free until all of us are.

Some holidays are symbolic; others are specific and full of meaning. Whether it’s on the small scale of a few churches uniting for good or an entire community understanding a Texas tradition, Juneteenth this year will be special.

Read this story in The Dallas Morning News.