Let freedom ring today.

For many Black Americans, Independence Day is eclipsed in significance by Juneteenth. June 19, 1865 commemorates the date on which enslaved people in Texas were informed that slavery had ended, two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Nearly 100 years later, on February 26, 1965, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a sermon at Temple Israel of Hollywood in which he spoke of the Black community's continued struggle to be free and reach a promised land that existed not only on paper, but in practice. In his sermon that day, Dr. King called for the congregation at Temple Israel to join him, in brotherhood, in the effort to guarantee "collective fulfillment" of a promised land for all.

In honor of Juneteenth and Dr. King's plea for partnership in this journey towards equality, please enjoy this musical offering by our New York staff members.