The past, present and future of Juneteenth was at the heart of a wide-ranging talk on Thursday at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum.

The panel discussion was titled Juneteenth: Legacy and Promise — A Community Conversation, and featured Dani Monroe, founder of the MV Chief Diversity Officer Summit, and Bow Van Riper, the museum’s research librarian. It was moderated by Keija Minor, former editor in chief of the Brides Magazine at Condé Nast and year-round Island resident.

Mr. Van Riper began by highlighting the important legacy of Juneteenth.

“We need to, more so now than ever, find ways to break down the idea that freedom was something that was settled in 1865 and it is no longer work we need to do,” he added.

Keija Minor, Dani Monroe and Bow Van Riper — Ray Ewing

He also talked about the Vineyard’s long history as a haven for the Black community.

“One of the themes I’ve gleaned from reading first-hand accounts from African Americans is that the Vineyard, in general, and Oak Bluffs in particular, has long been a place where they could come and feel like some of the challenges and the pressures of the mainland world were not present to the same degree, or perhaps not present at all,” he said.

The conversation then shifted to present day as Ms. Monroe noted how many businesses around the country have walked back many diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts due to pressure from President Donald Trump and his administration.

But she also highlighted businesses that have not followed those orders.

“In the last 10 days, Walmart, Best Buy, Netflix and other businesses said no thank you to anti-diversity,” she said. “We are going to embrace diversity. We are going to it is part of our values. It’s part of our business strategy.”

The application and education of DEI efforts is essential for positive change, Ms. Monroe added.

“Diversity, equity, inclusion, for me, is a business strategy to optimize the performance of an organization,” she said. “[It is] not just about human resources and about hiring people and promoting people and developing people. It is also about, how do you develop products for this vast majority? How do you create inclusion centers where we know there’s such a health disparity in the world?”

When asked how people can continue working towards DEI efforts in their daily life, Ms. Monroe urged everyone to begin by not using the acronym.

“Force yourself to really say the words,” she said.

She also emphasized the importance of grassroots movements.

“Not everybody can run a summit,” she said. “But you can write letters to your Congresspeople about your opinion. Whatever you do that is comfortable for you.... And educate yourself with what the work is really about.”

Mr. Van Riper said that information and facts aren’t always enough anymore, and he encouraged the audience to continue sharing the important stories of history.

“Tell them to your kids, tell them to your grandkids, tell them at parties and use them to counter people who make blanket statements about DEI being evil,” he said.