 Good evening. At the end of enslavement in Virginia, at nearly the exact same time as the first Juneteenth, a man named Peyton Johnson and his elderly mother and his children declared themselves Johnson's. Every written record I have found for him and his family identified him as Walden. Yet on the day that he went in and made a legal pronouncement, he declared himself Johnson. I never could figure out why he selected that name. It took seven years and I finally found in a legal document that as part of a dowry, this elderly woman had come from Johnson's Creek in what was then Western Virginia. As many of you know, Virginia claimed all the land all the way to China in North America. It is important to understand that everybody in that first generation of freedom, in those first days of freedom, did everything they could to establish themselves and most of all their families. My family had nothing. They came from literally enslavement, worked six years as tenant farmers and finally they were able to purchase about one-tenth of an acre of land. But that one-tenth of an acre meant everything to this enslaved, formerly enslaved man, his mother and he would eventually marry three times and father thirty-three children. Just like that fragile document that we looked at at the start of this program, freedom was so very fragile for African-Americans. The formerly enslaved never ever gave up on the belief that they would be free and upon freedom they were able to cling to a legacy that they passed down to each of us. They knew, although freedom was fragile, they could not be fragile. They, in fact, never felt that they could be destroyed. They were not willing to be delicate. They were always strong and they always stressed the importance of family and unity. Fragile, yes, but they refused to break. They had strong constitutions and absolutely absolute commitment to the future. Tonight we will hear from individuals who have studied and who have expanded the history of Juneteenth, but more importantly, the legacy that those newly enslaved persons left to each and every one of us. We will begin with Mr. and Mrs. Pinkard, John, and Jocelyn Pinkard, our important scholars, who have single-handedly did a great deal to, in fact, not just expand and research Texas history, but they've greatly infused the land and the legacy that we know of in and about Juneteenth today. Their work has been singular in the way that it has helped us understand not just history, but history, its culture, and its impact. Their documentaries have been spell-binding and they have single-handedly, as I said, researched new aspects, new avenues, and given us new segues into understanding the history of the United States and the history of this critical period, Juneteenth. It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you Don and Jocelyn Pinkard of Dallas, Texas. Can you guys hear us? So that decision was twofold. Stay on the plantation and receive some pay or leave. I want to share with you actual accounts of free men deciding what they should do taken from the history of Negroes of Lyonstone County, a 1936 publication. Those freed asked themselves, should I stay or should I go? On this day account, I'm not going to read all three of these points. I'm going to begin with the one in the middle. When we were freed, you could tie all we had in the bedsheet. Another account said, live a poor living seem a better alternative than being turned loose like a bunch of wild paws. On the go account, I'm going to read again in the middle. We thought we were going to be richer than the white folks because we were stronger and knew how to work and the whites didn't and we didn't have to work with them anymore. Another account said we soon found out that freedom could make folks proud for it didn't make them rich. Early Juneteenth celebration, people came dressed in new clothes, worn to represent their new freedom. For many years it was confined to Texas as word of the holiday was slow to spread to other states in the beginning. But here in Texas, many of those emancipated established Freeman towns and purchased land to celebrate Juneteenth. Here we have Houston Emancipation Park in Third Ward of Houston, Texas. This land was purchased by Reverend Jack Yates. The park is still in existence and usage as of his day. In Dallas in 1880s, we had Reverend Alan Grease. He purchased Grease Park, which is actually in the uptown in Dallas just for the soul celebration of Juneteenth. In Austin, there was also Emancipation Park that was purchased for the celebration of Juneteenth. For one of the most outstanding locations, which is a state park, it's Comanche Crossing outside of Meharra in Limestone County. The participants here for Juneteenth has grown as much as 30,000 participants at any given time. What's to be open to you with the Great Migration? That period of American history where six and a half million black people decided to leave the South and migrate to cities on the West Coast, the Midwest, and also on the East Coast. Many of those migrations occurred from Texas and Louisiana, and as they migrated, many of the Texans, familiar with the traditions of celebrating Juneteenth, took their celebration with them to places in the Midwest, but primarily on the West Coast, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other areas. That was a period where the celebration actually subsided a little bit, and that was for several reasons. I'll just hit on a couple, a couple of Jim Crow laws that were not just American, but some Americans had congregated. Also, many of you are aware, there was a period of extreme health, part of the Tulsa rise to 1931 in the Red Summon. During this time period, most of the people from African Americans were often uncomfortable, or come to get involved in something. But two things happened, two different conflicts that spurred the growth, and we looked through the Bible to see what the Jews came to. The first, the 1936, that our annual state shared, the largest gathering of people in the state of Texas on an annual basis. The 1936 African Americans put together funds and allowed them to create something called a Hall of Negro Law, a remote community exhibit in the centennial celebration. Also, Juneteenth got a shot in the heart in 1968, when at the conclusion of the Washington D.C., Reverend Ralph Avanade, called the delegates, were going home to celebrate Juneteenth in their respective cities and a level that had never been celebrated before. I'll just quickly, this is a gentleman, Al, everyone, most of you outside of Texas may not know who he is, but he is the founder of he, along with Governor Lowclimate, at Radified Juneteenth as the fifth college in Texas in 1988. Today, Juneteenth is celebrated all over the world in foreign countries, military bases. The ceremonies usually include feces, parades, pageants, music, dance, and as all of you know, last year on June 17th, Juneteenth became an official national holiday when President Joe Biden signed the law to make it so and in attendance, we have one of the great duels of our state, Ms. Oprah Lee, who lives in Fort Worth, Texas, about 30 minutes from where we are sitting tonight. Also, we want to announce to those of you who may not have heard, we're in the process in Texas of creating a national Juneteenth museum in Fort Worth, Texas. We're scheduling the groundbreaking in about a year and the museum should open in approximately three years. We've included a couple of references if you'd like to do some additional study on Juneteenth and we'll make them available after the meeting. Thank you very much for your presentation. Again, these scholars have helped us understand and affirm the importance and significance of Juneteenth. We thank them for their information. We are now very fortunate in that we have Dr. Anton House. Dr. House is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Parkside. Dr. House is an MA and PhD graduate of Howard University. Dr. House is an assistant professor at the University, the Delaware State University in Dover, Delaware. His scholarship includes a major study on the true reformers and important philanthropic organization in Washington, D.C. In addition, as a point of personal pride, Dr. House, when he was a graduate student, led a team of students on who was studying a cemetery project that was an African-American cemetery that was almost abandoned. It had been called the Quaker Colored Cemetery, but when this team of young scholars finished, it is now referred to as the Colored Union Benevolent Association Cemetery. They renamed it Cuba. These young scholars have had a great impact on the information and more importantly, the history and culture of the United States in the post-Civil War period. It is with great pleasure and pride that I introduce Dr. Anton House. Thank you very much, Dr. Clark-Lewis. Okay, my point of the presentation will focus on African-American Black Southern migrants as they let themselves respond to themselves in the Midwest. And as Dr. Clark-Lewis eloquently laid out, many of the first freed, these individuals were social architects. They were looking to create new ways that placed the African-American experience at the center. And Juneteenth becomes that holiday in which African-Americans could recommit themselves to the freedoms of their ancestors. Contrary to popular belief and what's now being told to highlight Juneteenth, it as a holiday that commemorates freedom's late arrival, it is actually the annual year in which African-Americans highlight what their ancestors had accomplished as well as recommit themselves to the freedom that they had to fight so hard. So therefore, my portion speaks upon racing Wisconsin, a small post-industrial city between the walking in Chicago that has African-American population of Black Southern migrants. So, like was stated in the previous lecture, the second great migration changed not only the social but the political culture of the United States, bringing African-Americans who had been bound in the South for generations to the Midwest as well as the West. But arriving in the West, as we know, it wasn't a good place while there were opportunities in manufacturing and industrial jobs, they still found themselves held to the policies of Jim Crow, which made African-Americans relegated to substandard positions and also legislation that demarked in a place in a certain location. For African-Americans in racing in Wisconsin, the site, the Dr. John Bryant Center on the South side was traditionally the African-American portion where they were relegated to there. So therefore, Junty is held in that exact location. So when we look at those who arrived from the South, we see this sharp increase of African-Americans in Wisconsin. And those African Americans who arrive in racing, they're from Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas. And by them having access to these benefactional jobs, they eventually own property, they're able to establish businesses and fund their own initiatives. So when we look at Junty, it's a holiday that places the African-American experience at the center. Therefore, you have African-American arts and crafts, you have African-American cuisine and culinary, various vendors who are selling African-American food ways and such. Also, you have different vendors from throughout the community who are different African-American figurines and collectibles. Also, music is a big force. But one of the most important features is the Miss Junty Bay pageant in which African-American aesthetics of beauty are also placed at the forefront. The thing that's interesting about racing in Wisconsin is you see every iteration that has taken place within the Black Experience being exhibited. In the picture, you have Mr. Johnson Bear and you have my aunt Henrietta, who was also one of the early founders of the Junty Bay celebration in racing in Wisconsin. She's known as Amina Sabir. So you see the role not only of the Black Church but also the role of the nation of Islam in this observance and celebration within the Black community. As I said, Miss Junty Bay pageant was a great spectacle in this city in which several young ladies who have had high GPAs who exhibit not only their beauty but their brilliance competed in order to have the honor to be Miss Junty to represent the community. We must make sure that we highlight this because it is at this point where African-American standards of beauty are celebrated and placed on a high value. But this tradition, it continues to carry on because this year's winner was a young lady named Farnia Cameron. And this tradition of highlighting Black beauty standards continue to show that there's a commitment to the community being placed at the center of this experience. My last picture is a picture of someone who is deeply celebrated in racing, Miss Bernice Moore, who was a fixture at Junty Bay, she rests in peace, but she always had the various Black commemorative dishes and plates and figurines that individuals were purchased to make sure that they had representations of themselves inside of their house. So I yield my time and look forward to the discussions on Junty. As you can see, Dr. House is absolutely brilliant. He is one of the prides of our history department, not only because of his depth of scholarship, but his commitment to community service. I thank him for that wonderful presentation. I'd like to add that Edward T. Clark, my father, was from Texas. I grew up hearing about Junty. One of the things he talked about not only were the programs, but it reminded us of the significance of the music. This evening, we are very, very proud to introduce Gabrielle Clover. Ms. Clover isn't a typical violinist. She works hard to share her music with the traditions of African Americans, combining the classical and the old traditions. And she says she works hard to make them her own. Having a lifelong love of music, she's a Dallas-based violinist who has added so much to this classical instrument. Her music and her genre has bloomed, and she has performed not only at weddings, at concerts, in the concerts halls of Dallas, but also in the major museums of Dallas. She has taken violinist creativity to a new level. She makes sure that her music infuses us with the period, not just of Juneteenth, but with the wonderful legacy, the musical legacy left to us by African Americans. She will give us one, one rendition at this time. And again, it is my pleasure to introduce a wonderful historian, a wonderful musician who combines history with classical music, Ms. Gabrielle Clover. Thank you, Ms. Clover. Thank you very much. I also have to quote in one of the many articles that have been written on Ms. Clover, the individual giving her a very important overview said, and I'm quoting, she is not just beautiful. She's wonderful to listen to. She enhances the listening experience. And most importantly, she is astounding in her creativity. I thank Gabrielle Clover for her rendition. I'd also ask we are beginning to get more and more questions in the chat. If you have any questions for our speakers, we would ask that you please place them in the chat. At this time, the first question asks Juneteenth has been declared and celebrated for so many years. I'll ask both Ms. Pink, Mr. Ms. Pinkard and Mr. Anton House to both give their information on why they think it took 155 years to make it a holiday. Mr. Ms. Pinkard first followed by Dr. House. In fact, the freedom came with the aid of 2000. It listed American men in the Civil War, along with women and children that fought and died for their enough freedom. So the holidays should be commemorated, it should be celebrated, and it should be honored for the great sacrifices of our ancestors. Dr. House. Well, I think for some African American communities, they wanted to retain it within the community. So we can serve as a purpose in a day for them to celebrate themselves. That since we live in a beautiful multicultural society, that African Americans needed a moment to celebrate a day in which they could not only reflect upon their journey from slavery to freedom, but also to come together and be amongst themselves and let their hair down and not feel that they're being overly surveillance. Juneteenth is a time of year in which an African American can gaze and see the past and the present with the representation of the United States color truth. So for many, I believe it was sort of like a tug of war thing in which there were those who believed that yes, we should share our best gifts with our nation, but also those that say, hey, we must hold on to some of these things for ourselves unless our children do not have a heritage to carry on. I'd also like to add, I think both Mr. Mrs. Pinkard and Dr. House have made an important point that we can pick up on. If you'll recall, although we now celebrate the 30th of May, remember African Americans instituted this holiday as Decoration Day. They again wanted to make sure, and I think both presenters have made it clear, that there is a clear connection between the past, that these individuals were so very, very, felt very, very strong about, and the present and how they wanted to make sure that there was always an opportunity to celebrate those individuals, as I said in the past, doing it in the present, but also speaking with a loud voice about our futures. And so when we think of 30th of May, I invite people, as Dr. House has said, and as Mr. and Mrs. Pinkard also said, to remember that there are many holidays that African Americans celebrated. And in the case of the 30th of May, they created it, that there is this long history of a celebratory belief and belief systems about how you, in fact, work so very hard to create a future, not just for yourself, but it's very much an influence that you see on the family. I have a question for Mr. Pinkard, Mr. and Mrs. Pinkard, and then I would ask Dr. House if he could also address it. And again, those of you who are watching the program, please put your questions in the chat. Mr. and Mrs. Pinkard, I would like to ask you, in terms of your community and your celebrations, what is the one thing that you think is so very important for individuals when they're thinking about the celebration of Juneteenth today? What's one thing that you feel is critically important? I think it's critically important in the state of Texas and around the nation to understand exactly how the holiday originated, and particularly how it originated in communities all over the state of Texas and spread to different areas of the country. So I think the thing that people really, really need to focus on is exactly what is the purpose of the holiday. And I think the purpose of the holiday started in Texas as a celebration when we were actually no longer enslaved in this state. Ms. Pinkard, did you have anything that you wanted to add to that point? One of the things I want to get from this is to continue the old history of how those who were emancipated, the history of it. So when we were eating and socializing and playing games and doing those things that we passed on to our young ones, the history of it. We are people of all historians more than written, but we don't want to get away from them, even though we're written now, we don't want to get away from the old history of our ancestors. Dr. House, I would think that everyone should pay attention to the tradition, because when people minimalize it to General Gordon Granger's arrival in Gavison, they miss out on the large ramification of what's actually taking place. That he's basically showing up to make what's been immaterial, those words like freedom, truth, and justice, material. That he's not being able to see what's going to take place following a reconstruction, but that the civil war has come to an end. And this is your Republic as well, that our federal government had finally arrived to make sure that the hard effort, the life in the minds of the United States color troops, those individuals who saved our Republic from the treaty Confederates, the treaty breaking Confederates, those individuals who talked over to our Republic and saved our Union. So therefore, when you see it, you understand that our nation was torn asunder by those who tried to destroy our Republic. And it was these individuals who had to arrive to allow and let the people who tried to conspire to keep out information that individuals were free, so they can attain one more good crop of coerced slave labor, that our nation showed up to represent the sons and daughters of former slaves. There's nothing more brilliant than knowing that at the advent of our nation, we see the demise of the monarchy, but also in the same soil, you see the death of slavery, two of the oldest institutions out of human existence, both died within our nation. Thank you so much. I think that the points that you're making about commemoration, both of you, Mr. and Mrs. Pinkard and Dr. House, you focused on those commemorative aspects that are critical for the future. I'd like to also add that when we think of commemoration, that we also remember that there are a number of organizations. This program was cosponsored by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Since 1916, they have single-handedly, and I'll say it again, they've single-handedly under the leadership of Dr. Carter G. Woodson insisted that the truth about the African American past be presented. This program is being cosponsored by the National Archives, a facility that many, many individuals come to for research, and the group that was founded when we're talking about family history, when we're talking about the African American Historical and Genealogical Society, a number of us who were working with Alex Haley on a program that we never thought would get as big as it did, Roots. There were a number, very few of us, but a number of us who were working, we decided to create an organization. We didn't want to be an extension of the National Genealogical Society. We created our own organization. Mr. James Dent Walker and others joined with myself and six others to create this organization. Our initial meetings were at the National Archives and our first five conferences were at the National Archives. We are creating, as these scholars have said, a cultural continuum that is so very important for people when we think about not just, not just Juneteenth, but I think Mr. and Mrs. Pinkard have pointed out that this reflects on the issues of emancipation and the wider questions of freedom nationally and locally. Dr. House has made it clear that these associations don't just remain within one state, that you do have a number of states where individuals have migrated, that they take culture with them. If we could, if we would ask at this time for Ms. Gabriel Clover to give us another song and another reflection of our culture through music. Thank you very much. I think that not only her selection, but her wonderful playing helps us understand how the songs of African Americans are syncopated by our own struggle. We have to remember that this music influenced all segments of the history of the United States and the music and cultural history of this country. I think that we also have to add that music has been central to political activism and understanding how activism and how African American activism in particular is pushed and enhanced by music. So again we thank Gabriel Clover for her wonderful rendition. Another question has come in and it is asking why if Mr. and Mrs. Pinkard and then Dr. House, why is it important for individuals to not only celebrate but also research this whole idea of Juneteenth? And I'd like to add for both Mr. and Mrs. Pinkard and for Dr. House, where would they recommend that individuals not necessarily on the national level, but what are the local areas and local places that you feel, local resources that you feel are important if you could just give one or two for individuals who are interested in learning about the whole idea of freedom and equality and the freedom struggle of African Americans in their community? Local Dallas area, we are really really blessed with a tremendous resource. We have one of the best African American history museums in this country. We are constantly getting exhibits that celebrate the history of African Americans in this facility. It is well attended and excellent staff and they just do a great job in terms of program direction and bringing exhibits that really really shed a light on African American history, Juneteenth related and in other areas as well. So we are blessed in Dallas to have one of the best African American museums in this country. Ms. Pinkard? One of the things that we have also is we have a lot of archival and historical connections and with that you can always research your history. But we also have a lot of books and you can just, if you want to really understand your history, the best way to do it is to find local periodicals, local resources like the Lyme South County of Negro. That particular book highlighted the coming from enslaved to freedom. It was a very good resource of books. So researching your books, all kinds of books, Amazon is good, Miss Oden Archival is good, the National U.S. Archival is also good. So I would just research. I would say not only check your local library but probably one of the most important institutions that have been preserving Black culture and history before these things were made into public facilities was the Black Church. I will contact and see what churches, what old African American churches in your community are around because within there you may find a rich archive of those individuals who have preserved the history of Africa. And why is it important to celebrate Juneteenth? Well, as I stated earlier, you only hear half of the story of the Civil War if you're not understanding the role of the United States color tree. And you will not understand what was gained, what was lost and how individuals attempted to destroy our republics. Something that I believe we all should be grateful for because these individuals were almost successful without the decisive manpower of those individuals who absconded from their plantations in order to embrace freedom and in order to come back and liberate their family. I believe there is no other place in human history where the formerly enslaved were armed, trained, organized and returned back to kill their slaves. So with studying the United States history, especially the Civil War and then Reconstruction, we will understand how we arrived at January 6th because if you look at a lot of the pictures that highlight that dark day in which individuals tried to overthrow our republic, you will see a guy waving a confederate flag. He walked throughout the state capital waving the flag of the losers in the House of the Victors. So the cultural memory of those who showed up on that dark day was one that was laden with this period. Juneteenth will help us and show us and make us much more appreciative of those brave men and women who sacrificed their lives and made sure that we have these Thank you so very much. I think it's important as a history professor to take the time as individuals have done here to talk about how people arrived at freedom. There were many routes to freedom. Individuals who, as it was so eloquently stated, who left the plantations in the way that they could. Those who pushed their route to freedom was through the service. For my individual family, the route to freedom was to make sure that this enslaved man, his three wives, his mother, most importantly all of his 33 children would never make an X. Each of us as families, and we, those of us, particularly of African American descent, we've created these routes to freedom. These freedom routes, again, take us through many of the muck and the mire points of history. It's not always pretty, but it makes us think about and appreciate the legacy that was literally handed to us. Mr. and Mrs. Pinkard, when you think of the routes to freedom, and when we look at those migration maps, many of those individuals in Texas went east, many went north, but we forget a large number went west and established vibrant communities all over areas in Colorado, California, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. These communities literally moved Texas culture, eastward, northward, and very strongly westward. If you think of one route to freedom, in your idea, and I'd like you to add, I hope, the importance of your apparel, because that is so critical when we talk about the presentation of self, how individuals dress and how this apparel helps us think about and enhance our routes to freedom. Could you talk about, very briefly, just what you feel each of you was a route to freedom that was so important for African Americans, and could you tell us a little bit about your apparel line? Mr. and Mrs. Pinkard, followed by Dr. House. Okay, we have an apparel line, Hidden History, DFW, Hidden History Apparel, and it's basically apparel to celebrate African American achievement, to celebrate our culture, and to also provide dialogue if you want to look at a shirt and maybe start a conversation. That's very important. We as the people have gone through so much, and it's so much that in our form of assimilation, we tend to erase who we are, and we can never erase who we are, because if you don't know where you came from, you are not going to know where to go. And so our apparel provides that. Now as far as migrating to another area, as you have stated, we've gone from New York to San Francisco to Oakland to all these other places, and we've taken our culture with us. And that's the thing that we try to provide in our apparel, is the culture. And just real quickly, our apparel really focused on three things that we believe in deeply. One is the promotion of Black History in general. Secondly, the promotion of the Juneteenth holiday, and also lastly, the promotion of HBCUs across this country, and the critical role that they have played in the education of African Americans. In terms of moving westward, I think something Dr. Clark Lewis said, people really underestimate in terms of the transportation is a vital role of the railroad in terms of moving Black people out of the South. In Texas, the reason that most of us ended up westward is that that is the route that the railroads carried us. In Mississippi, Alabama, those railroads carried us to Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and so forth. So I just don't want anybody to underestimate the effect that the railroad had on our freedom. Dr. House? Well, for my family from Northern Mississippi, and as well as the Memphis Crockett County, Humboldt County area, many of them went north in order to take advantage of the lucrative factors that were in southeastern Wisconsin. But one of the things that my grandfather had told me that when he became gainfully employed, the individuals who performed at the factory, some of the owners would say, do you know of any individuals who will work as hard as you? In which a chain migration happened. My grandfather went back and got my uncles, my cousins, his neighbors, those individuals that were from these various counties to come north and work. Well, seeing that it was more conducive somewhat that they were making much more money, they began to lay down routes. But it wasn't meant to be permanent because many of them, after securing enough money, they went back to Mississippi and bought property, bought land and set up trailers. So the while we are born of north, we were always sent back to Mississippi for the summers to make sure that we stay connected and that understand the sacrifice that was made, that you had individuals who dislocated themselves from places that they've been for generations in order to take advantage of a once thriving economy, but now to return back to the places of their forebears. So therefore, it seems like it's cyclical that, as Joseph Campbell highlights about the myth, the story of a cyclical journey in which one person starts off from one place only to come back, that African Americans are returning to the south with these opportunities, with this education, back to the places where they come from, in order to help play a vital and critical role in establishing and building up the black threat. Thank you very much. I think both of you have highlighted, or three of you have highlighted, that there are social, economic and political routes to freedom. And each of you highlighted a different aspect, never knowing that you would do it that way. But each of you highlighted a part of this critical, this critical journey, that although we're talking about Juneteenth, it's so much more than Juneteenth, that it is looking back with an understanding of how history moved individuals forward, whether as in the case of my family, you have a man with 33 children who eventually fought to keep a school open, because he knew that small education would be their route he hoped to freedom. Mr. and Mrs. Delaney were too modest to also add that they've done a wonderful film, called The Great Years, that really highlights the aspects of history that are frequently missed. If you could very briefly tell us why you created this documentary and how this documentary speaks to history that we're celebrating today. Wow. I didn't expect you to ask me that question, but I'm glad you did it. We have created a documentary called The Great Years. The reason that we did it is we have several passions and one of them is sports and Texas history. And this documentary film gave us an opportunity to combine those two elements. It is the story, and I know this may be unbelievable for a lot of people who are hearing my voice, of the greatest high school team to ever perform in the country. It just so happened that they're located in the state of Texas. They are the only high school to ever win a championship before integration and after integration with essentially the same community, the same athletes, and the same coaching staff. It's a phenomenal story. If you get a chance, I'd love you to see it. In addition to that, from my perspective, it is a very historical move. It's a documentary that is very historical. It actually talks about Juneteenth. It talks about the history. It talks about communities that were established by free men. So it's more than a sports movie. It's more about football. It is talking about history. It talks about segregation. It talks about integration, and it talks about all those things that we've gone through as a people, and it brings it into the limelight of sports. In closing, Dr. House. Well, my research follows a fraternal benevolent association called the Grand Fountain United Order of True Reformers. It was a 19th century mutual aid benevolent society that evolved to an economic cooperation and started the first black bank in 1887 in Richmond, Virginia. Founded by a former slave and a Reverend William Washington Brown, he would show the power of the black dollars by combining it and using it as a mechanism for racial uplift and development. So I'm constantly working on my manuscript, going through various revisions so that I can get this text out to the public. It is much needed because it covers the time period between the fall of Reconstruction and the beginning of World War I, which shows how African Americans laid the foundation for the development through this organization for the black insurance magnets that will highlight and transform communities in the 20th century. Again, the great Yates, and I apologize for saying it incorrectly, the great Yates reflects very importantly research that's being done by others and they encouraged individuals like Michael Johnson, who's looking at Parker Gray, a school in Alexandria. There are about eight others, individuals who are following your lead, who are looking at these schools and looking at the importance of them in making history and creating leaders in our community. Mr. House also picked up on a point that when we talk about local history, we understand how the true reformers and their legacy in terms of savings and loaning money helped create the economic basis for many communities that we have in place today. In closing, again, I would like to thank the National Archives for this opportunity, the National Archives Foundation, which worked in conjunction with the Boeing Corporation to make this program possible. I'd like to encourage individuals, as both Mr. Mrs. Pinkard said and as Dr. House said, to consider understanding how their local history is an important factor in history today through organizations like the African American Historical and Genealogical Society, or if we're talking about the African American community led, research community led by Dr. Dulaney. And when we talk about this organization started by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, we are talking about an organization that used to be, as it said, it is an association for the study of African American life and history. So when we talk about this organization led by Dr. Dulaney and its former president, Dr. Higginbotham of Harvard, these scholars are pushing this new sense of history and a new pride in history forward. As we close out, I would ask if we could have the last musical rendition as we close out by Ms. Clover. Gabriel Clover, as I said, is an astonishing musician whose work is so appreciated. And when you read individuals who are looking at and evaluating the impact she's having on history, and most importantly, combining history and music, it is wonderful. We thank her not only for her music, but how her music is encouraging our community, sustaining us in so many ways, and helping us see how you can combine classical and contemporary music and culture today. I want to thank each of our participants for their brilliant, for their brilliant information and insight on Juneteenth and understand that they've helped each of us to think of new ways to creatively celebrate and commemorate the holiday that looks at the ending of enslavement and encourages us to remember the strength of those formerly enslaved. I will turn it over now to Ms. Clover, please. Thank you and good night on behalf of the National Archives, the National Archives Foundation, underwritten by the Berlin Corporation, and most importantly, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Good night.