Photo from an Early Juneteenth Celebration
This week Juneteenth was recognized as a federal holiday for the second time after being celebrated in the African American community for decades. Hopefully by now most white Americans are familiar with at least the basic story of how freedom for enslaved people finally reached Galveston, TX on June 19, 1865. This represents the end of slavery in the United States after nearly 250 years since the first enslaved Africans were sold to the Jamestown colony in 1619. It was also 89 years since the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that “all men are created equal” but did nothing to end slavery in the newly formed nation. Juneteenth is important for all Americans, because it marks the end of the most glaring failure of our nation to live into our espoused principles. Yet even with the end of slavery, true equality for Black people has remained elusive as evidenced by the ongoing racial gaps in wealth, education, housing, and medical care. In his final book, Martin Luther King, Jr. called us to both acknowledge the failures of our past and to continue to work for true equality and justice in our time:
“Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten. A society is always eager to cover misdeeds with a cloak of forgetfulness, but no society can fully repress an ugly past when the ravages persist into the present. America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay. If it loses the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes and the country that would be great will lack the most indispensable element of greatness – justice.” (From chapter 4 of Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? )
The chronological proximity of Juneteenth and July 4 provides an annual opportunity to celebrate our nation’s principles of freedom and justice for all while also not suppressing the reality of racial inequality past and present. During this time of deep political polarization, it is disturbing that a majority of states have yet to make Juneteenth a state holiday. Even more concerning is the perpetuation of false stereotypes of “CRT” in order to prevent teaching the reality of our nation’s racial history. Juneteenth has the potential to help us all understand history at a deeper level so that we can take steps toward greater levels of equality and justice for all. That’s a reason to celebrate, not to suppress. The short video posted below focuses on Juneteenth as a federal holiday while only 18 states have made it a state holiday.