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Hi, my name is Sherrell Daley and I am interviewing: Yeah, my name is Darren Charles Overby, also known as DC, and I represent the first United States colored troops of Washington, DC. We're known as DC's colored regiment of the Civil War. And I am doing this at City Point. Today is May 25th, 2023. And okay, how are you doing today? Oh, I'm doing pretty good. And I'm grateful for being here to have an opportunity to examine and portray black history and culture.

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What does Juneteenth mean to you? Juneteenth means a variety of different things, but what I just recently explored and talked about before we started the camera is that Juneteenth to me on this day means an opportunity to discuss the transition from enslavement and colonization to the transition to issuing liberty and then regaining God-given freedoms. And what I mean by that specifically, I mean the enslavement and colonization part, which have to go hand in hand, is pretty obvious. You know, that helps to explore that period of history prior to the transitions made during the Civil War. During the Civil War, we end up getting issued liberties, okay, and then after the war we end up regaining freedom. I just recently got taught on the difference between liberty and freedom. Liberty comes from a man or a woman in this realm. It's something that's issued to you. And a lot, during the Civil War, you know, whether it's through the Emancipation Proclamation or the 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments, whether it's General Order 3 that we talked about today, those are issues of liberty that's given to you by man, okay, or woman. But after the war, you see there's a transition between liberty and regaining freedom. Freedom is given by God, if you believe, like I do, or the universe. And it's not something, it's actually not something that's given as opposed to you're just born with it, okay? And it can't be taken away. Once we go through the transition of the Civil War and Juneteenth included, we go from that issuing of liberties and regaining what was originally ours in the beginning. You know, you're born with freedom, all right? And no one should be able to take that away. So we're able to do that. Juneteenth helps us to understand all the ideals that were given to us, or at least white men, through the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, and how the Civil War helps to manifest that for Black America through the Emancipation Proclamation, which wasn't really law, it was an executive order from the president. It gets the ball rolling, so that way when Juneteenth comes and everything that follows, we're able to pass these amendments, the freedom amendments, 13th Amendment, which helps to emancipate people with the exception of incarceration. I don't know if you knew that, but you can still be slaved today by law, okay, through the 13th Amendment, but it opens the door and it opens the discussion and debate and it ends majority of slavery through the 13th amendment right and then the 14th amendment which gives equal protection under the law and all the rights and privileges that come with citizenship in the 15th Amendment which gives universal male suffrage. No, it doesn't give the rights to women, but what it does is it initiates conversation and dialogue and debates among women that allows them to get themselves galvanized to fight for their rights. So you know, pretty much through everything I just said, it helps us to explore, to examine and portray that history from slavery and colonization to the issuing of liberties and then regaining the freedoms that we had at birth. So that that's pretty much what it means to me, what Juneteenth means to me. So how do you feel about Juneteenth being recognized as a federal holiday? For the most part, I feel positive. There is a reservation for concern, only because a lot of times, whether it's the government of our nation of other nations history books all these variety of ways of getting information out. My concern is that we lose the essence of what it was really about and the accurate stories. But I feel that this is a good move and I'm glad that people are talking about Juneteenth because they're able to explore with everything I just discussed. But we just have to do better at retaining the original knowledge, the original history about this day, you know? So like, you know, example, Juneteenth is not that typical story where they say, oh, it was the last of the enslaved people to find out about their freedom. It's more than that. All right? This is the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation. Okay? That's one thing that it is, by the, not just the federal government, but it's military, all right? Then Juneteenth is about a colored unit known as the 25th Army Corps leaving this area on ships to go to Galveston, Texas to close the Civil War. And then there's that last part that's not promoted, okay, that has to do with the enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine. They're there with purpose, not just for the United States, not just for the African-American community, but their placed there as a security force to avert world war. There were activities that were taking place in Mexico. If you could read further, but when they talk about Maximilian, who was a dictator, an Austrian dictator planted in by a French dictator by the name I believe his name is Napoleon the third. They want to make sure all that business over in Mexico didn't spill over into Texas. So we got to remember that it's not just about gaining freedoms. It's about enforcing the laws that give us our liberties and freedoms and the protection of those freedoms. What are we going to do as a, you know, as a community, as a state, as a national government, as a society, as a whole, to protect those liberties and the freedoms that we are born with. So I get all of that. I know it's a lot, but that's what Juneteenth means to me.

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So thank you so much for your time. Absolutely.