VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, and celebrations are underway across the country.
While it’s only been a federal holiday since 2021, one Virginia playwright has been leading Juneteenth celebrations for more than 30 years.
Efrem Graham sat down with Sheri Bailey to learn how she uses the arts to help people face America’s legacy of slavery “without shame or blame.”
For nearly three decades, Sheri Bailey has stepped onto empty theater stages to create new worlds — and confront some of the most painful parts of our history.
“I wrote a play called Southern Girls with my dear friend Dura Temple — she actually passed away this May,” Bailey said. “The play follows six girls — three Black, three white — from when they’re little, around six or seven, all the way into early adulthood.”
A Virginia native, Bailey says her home state, especially the Hampton Roads area, plays a central role in the story of slavery and freedom in America.
“In 1619, the first Africans from Angola arrived at Fort Monroe — that’s where they came ashore,” she said. “Then, in 1861, you’ve got the ‘Contraband Three’ — three men who escaped slavery in Norfolk and made it to Fort Monroe. They asked for asylum — they didn’t use that word, but that’s what they meant. When their owner came to get them back, the Union Army refused. They even put them on the federal payroll. That moment marked the beginning of the end of chattel slavery in America. So right there at Fort Monroe, you go from enslavement to self-emancipation.”
Bailey’s work brings live theater and educational programs to churches, schools and community organizations — all with the goal of fostering racial healing.
Theater brings people together in a way “that is not threatening,” she said. “That helps a lot. The play I’m holding here is called Abolitionist Museum.”
The play features eight historical figures who had a major impact on slavery.
“They’re wax figures in a museum, and the curator brings in a Confederate flag. The characters debate whether or not to burn it,” Bailey said. “Back in 2009, we were performing the play in Suffolk, and suddenly someone in the audience shouted, ‘Nat Turner killed my family.'”
“Nat Turner killed my family in South Hampton County, so before you think of doing away with the Confederate flag, think of what I lost,” the voice said.
“We were all like, ‘Who said that?'” Bailey recalled. “It turned out to be a 70-year-old woman named Rose Nichols. She was a descendant of someone killed during the Nat Turner insurrection in 1831. But she said it like it had just happened. We told her, ‘We’re going to finish the play, and then we’re going to have that conversation.’ And it was perhaps one of the best post-show conversations I’ve ever been part of. People with radically different perspectives were able to have civilized conversation.”
***Please sign up for CBN Newsletters and download the CBN News app to ensure you receive the latest updates from a Christian perspective.***
When asked why she emphasizes avoiding shame and blame in her work, Bailey said, “Blaming someone for something they had no control over, that doesn’t get us anywhere… We’re past that. And we’re past shame, too. What we need now is healing — healing from the terror and torture that slavery was. So yeah, we’ve got to move beyond that. That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be held accountable, but we can’t stay stuck in blame.”
“If someone is going to blame you for something that you don’t have any control over, that’s a one-way street to nowhere. And so the idea that someone should be blamed at this point, we’re beyond that and we’re beyond shame because again, we’re looking for ways to be able to heal from the terror and the torture of what slavery was all about. And that doesn’t mean that people don’t need to be held accountable,” she said.
Bailey also believes there’s a growing effort to distort the truth about slavery.
“Absolutely,” she said. “People are trying to rewrite it, suppress it, change it — all of that. And that’s exactly why this work is so important.”
Bailey — and Juneteenth VA — hope to continue that work for as long as possible.
