Unfinished Freedom Since 1865: Still Waiting to Be Free

by Rev. Dr. Tammy Isaac

Juneteenth is more than a historical marker. It’s a layered experience. For Black Americans, it’s celebration wrapped in sorrow. It’s progress mixed with pain. It’s the reminder that while the chains were broken, the systems that built them never fully collapsed.

At the International Death, Grief, and Bereavement Conference, where I presented a poster abstract on grief in spiritual communities, I was introduced to the concept of political grief; the grief felt over the state of our political world.  I sat in that session as the only African American in the room—or as they like to say, “the sister in the room.” I listened as my White colleagues named their grief over the current political climate and expressed fear and loss because of the very president many of them had a hand in electing. I squirmed in my seat, caught in an internal storm.

As a Grief Advocate and Educator, my role is to make room for all grief, acknowledge it, respect it, give it space. But as a Black woman who has always lived with political grief, I found myself torn. There was a part of me that wanted to scream, “So what if you feel that way? I’ve felt like this all my life.” That moment was a collision of two truths: my calling to hold space for others and my exhaustion from constantly living in a political system that has never made space for me.

I work for an organization that has a location in Galveston, Texas the very place where freedom was delayed, where enslaved people didn’t learn of the Emancipation Proclamation until more than two years after it was signed. I walk those grounds of Galveston, TX with full awareness that for my ancestors, this was not a place of celebration but of withheld justice. Even now, I walk as a free-ish African-American woman carrying this history in my bones and the awareness in my stride.

The term “free-ish” gained widespread recognition after actor and writer Donald Glover (also known as Childish Gambino) used it in 2018 on a Juneteenth episode of his show Atlanta. Since then, it has become a cultural shorthand to describe the tension of being legally free, but still held back by racism, inequality, and systemic injustice. To be free-ish is to live in a country that promises liberty but often delivers limits. It names the gap between emancipation on paper and equity in real life.

This is what makes Juneteenth both beautiful and complicated. Yes, we gather. We barbecue. We sing. We lift each other up. But we also carry grief, personal, ancestral, and political.

We grieve:

• The freedom that was promised but came too late.

• The justice that is still slow.

• The systems that continue to oppress.

Unfinished freedom means the chains were removed, but the weight was never lifted. Juneteenth marked the end of physical slavery, but freedom, true, full, lived freedom was never fully delivered. We were freed from plantations but left to fight for land, dignity, safety, and economic survival with no protection. We were released from physical bondage but quickly shackled by new forms: Jim Crow laws, redlining, voter suppression, mass incarceration, and economic exclusion. So NO, freedom is not finished.

We carry the grief of a freedom that came with conditions, loopholes, and limits. We see it in politics where policies continue to harm our communities. We see it in healthcare where disparities cost us our lives. We see it in schools, jobs, and housing, systems that were never built with us in mind. Unfinished freedom is not just about the past it’s about right now. It’s the grief we carry when we show up to vote, not knowing if our voice will matter. It’s the fatigue of entering rooms where we’re present but not fully welcomed. It’s the frustration of having to navigate systems that claim equality while quietly working against it.

And yet, we still show up.

Because showing up is resistance.

Showing up is memory. Because showing up is how we survive.

Showing up is hope.

Showing up is how we honor those who walked before us.

Showing up is how we keep pushing toward freedom not just in word, but in reality.

So this Juneteenth, as we honor what was and name what still is, let us hold space for both our joy and our grief. Let us celebrate, even with tears in our eyes. We are still waiting. Still working. Still walking until freedom is finished.

~ Dr. Tammy Isaac

---

Season 3 is Coming This July – Get Ready to Breathe Again

The wait is almost over. Permission to Breathe Podcast returns this July with Season 3, bringing fresh conversations, deeper reflections, and sacred pauses for those navigating grief, healing, and everything in between.

This new season is rooted in one powerful truth: we don’t have to rush our healing. We just have to keep breathing through it.

Season 3 will continue to explore the emotional, spiritual, and physical journey of grief—from the quiet ache that lingers to the courage it takes to live again. We’ll hold space for topics that are often unspoken, invite powerful voices to share their stories, and offer honest insights that meet you right where you are.

If you’ve ever needed a place to just be, to cry, to process, to hope—Season 3 is for you.

In the meantime, you can revisit Seasons 1 and 2 to hear powerful conversations on grief and faith, the connection between grief and the body, the struggle of spiritual silence, and the courage it takes to live after loss. These episodes are filled with honesty, healing, and reminders that you are not alone.

Mark your calendar. Make room for grace. And get ready to breathe again.

Season 3 of Permission to Breathe returns July 2025.