From the earliest days of what ultimately became the United States, Black people have insisted on their right to be free. They discovered ways to take their freedom and to define what freedom looked like, even under the violence of enslavement, said Kyera Singleton, historian and executive director of the Royall House and Slave Quarters.

Singleton was the keynote speaker for “Together We Rise,” Tufts’ sixth annual community celebration of Juneteenth, held at Joyce Cummings Center on June 18. The Royall House and Slave Quarters is a historic property located in Medford, and was home in the 18th century to the Bay State’s largest slaveholding family—and at least 60 enslaved women, men, and children whose forced labor helped build the Royall family’s wealth.

A National Historic Landmark, the Royall House operates today as a nonprofit museum, bearing witness to the lives and work of enslaved people in the North in the pre-Revolutionary period.

As part of her case-making, Singleton shared the story of Belinda Sutton, a Black woman enslaved by the Royall family and the first Black woman to have been awarded reparations in the United States, through petitions she made beginning at age 70 to the Massachusetts legislature.

Sutton’s story is one of the earliest available examples of Black women advocating for their own freedom, a story that was pieced together through archival research and opened a rare window into the life of an enslaved woman. Working in this discipline, Singleton said, she and her fellow historians are asked to recognize the tremendous violence and oppression experienced by enslaved people. But her work, she offered, also gives her the opportunity to “bear witness to the ways in which enslaved women, men, and children resisted, created lives for themselves, experienced joy, perished, and survived.”

Organized by the university’s Office of Institutional Inclusive Excellence, the university’s observation of Juneteenth was cosponsored by the cities of Medford and Somerville, two of Tufts’ host communities. This year, in addition to being open to all university staff, students, and faculty, Tufts’ celebration was open for the first time to residents of Somerville and Medford. Tufts community members were also invited to Juneteenth events held in Medford and Somerville.

Programming included educational workshops; offerings for children; and art, dance, and wellness activities.

In addition to Singleton, other speakers included Tufts President Sunil Kumar; Provost and Senior Vice President Caroline Genco; and Alaina Macaulay, assistant vice provost for inclusive excellence and leadership.

Juneteenth means “making space for truth, for healing, and for radical joy,” said Macaulay. “In a world that often seeks to diminish our light, choosing joy—especially communal joy—is a powerful declaration: We are still here, we are still thriving, and we are still dreaming.”