 Juneteenth has long been celebrated in African-American communities, and consciousness of it has been raised since it has been proclaimed a federal holiday. For many of us, there is much to learn about Juneteenth. I submit that one of the best ways to learn is to put it into a historical context. The history of the Washington metropolitan area is reflective of our larger, deeper history in this country. Like many other places, the DMV was built on the bones of plantations that were once worked by people enslaved by our forebears. The shadows of some of these places exist now only in time and in the cultural effects of slavery. Today, let us remember nearby places such as the Abingdon Plantation, whose owner's name, Alexander, was adopted for the nearby city of Alexandria. We should do this to remind ourselves and each other that emancipation came too late for some, and also to remember that this city did not spring up out of the grass, but rather was lifted by the sweat and suffering of a people who gained nothing by its construction, whose bones may well lie beneath the massive modern constructions nearby, oppressed even in death. The Abingdon Plantation lives on now, a pile of bricks next to a modern parking garage, unnoticed by the thousands of people who pass by every day. Like the memory of the institution of slavery, it exists at the edge of our consciousness. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us in his letter from his cell in the Birmingham Jail that shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. Let us all today remember those who were enslaved here and elsewhere so that we might understand just a sliver of the joy that Juneteenth offers. Through Juneteenth, let us commit to each other that we will not forget either the bitterness of slavery nor the triumph of freedom. Let us carry that teaching with us into the future as a nation that wants to learn from its past, not rebuy it.