Juneteenth through the eyes of young slaves in 1865: East End Voter Coalition celebrates annual essay contest winners at Pulaski Street School

What’s the importance of Juneteenth? The holiday, first officially commemorated by New York State in 2020 and recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, has been honored locally by the Riverhead-based East End Voter Coalition for two decades, with community events and, since 2007, an annual essay contest for fifth-graders at Pulaski Street School.

Juneteenth marks the occasion of June 19, 1865 when Union Army Major General Gordon Granger led troops into Galveston, Texas, to inform the people of Texas that slaves were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Granger’s announcement came nearly two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued issued the proclamation and two months after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox.

To help students understand the significance of that moment, the East End Voter Coalition hosts an essay contest that requires fifth-grade students to write a first-person diary entry from the perspective of a young slave in Texas on June 19, 1865, a day also known as Freedom Day.

The East End Voter Coalition announced this year’s contest winners during a celebration at Pulaski Street School on June 2. Aurora Scott, Gabriella Beck and Sara Martinez Acosta earned top honors. About 120 students submitted entries. (Read the winning essays below.)

East End Voter Coalition Co-chairperson Robert Brown said it was “extremely difficult” for the judges to pick only three winners. “As far as I am concerned, everybody that submitted an essay is a winner,” he told the students and teachers who gathered in the school cafeteria for the event.

Contest winners read their essays aloud. Each winner received a certificate and $50 gift card. Students enjoyed ice pops after the ceremony concluded.

The East End Voter Coalition is a nonpartisan group founded to encourage minorities to vote.

Brown imparted on students the importance of voting. ”You will not realize it — how important it is — unless you lose it,” Brown said. “And the potential of losing the right to vote is on the horizon. Anytime you get a chance to vote, vote.”

At the celebration of a day centered on freedom, Pulaski Street Principal Patrick Burke told students to  consider how they will use their freedom throughout their lives. 

“Right now you have the freedom to make choices, you have the freedom to really be or do whatever it is you want — and don’t let anyone limit that,” Burke said. “But what are you going to do with it? Are you going to be the next principal? Will you be the next author or poet? Will you own your own business? You guys have to start embracing that and start thinking big.”