It’s June and Juneteenth is Not like Us

“Juneteenth was a promise that was broken. Reconstruction failed and this country has continued to wage war on the Black body. Juneteenth also embodies the resilience of Black people. Even in the face of a broken system, we choose to find joy in resistance and celebrate in community.”

– Obrian Rosario | Community Organizer

 

One of the insidious tactics used by colonial powers is to define the values, perceptions, and worldview of those they oppress. Controlling the thoughts of the subjugated with mistruths and misinformation helps to maintain dominance of one group over another. Holidays are often used for this purpose. For example, Columbus Day perpetuates the myth that Columbus discovered America and empowers Italian Americans with a greater sense of national pride. Is Juneteenth a similar ploy? 

There was an overwhelming groundswell of support from the Black community to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a federal holiday. However, there was little support from the Black community for assigning Juneteenth as a significant national historic event, so why has it become a holiday? Was it a means of appeasing Black folks during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests?

June 19th—now known as Juneteenth—is widely celebrated as the day to celebrate the end of the enslavement of Africans in America,. But the truth is more complex.

The Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the end of slavery, took effect on January 1, 1863. Yet, its promise of freedom was largely symbolic without the presence of Union troops to enforce it.

For more than 900 days, that promise remained out of reach for many, especially in the farthest corners of the Confederacy. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, that the last enslaved African Americans were finally informed of their freedom.

Juneteenth marks not the moment slavery ended, but the moment its end was finally enforced—a delayed justice that reminds us freedom must be protected, proclaimed, and pursued.

Should Black people celebrate the ending of slavery or the beginning of true freedom in America, which is yet to come?  With Juneteenth, we should define what we commemorate.  We must determine the relevance of June 19th for ourselves and not follow a contrived narrative. Instead, Juneteenth should be a day that symbolizes Black resilience and unity. 

Our ancestors taught us, “It is only when stone is struck against stone that sparks are born.” Strength is often born in struggle, and progress emerges when we push back against the weight of resistance. That’s why, throughout history, Black people have found unity not despite backlash—but because of it.

During slavery, the backlash to freedom appeared in the form of slave patrols and violent recapture. We responded by building the Underground Railroad—a path lit by courage, carved through shadow.

Following Reconstruction, the backlash emerged in the form of lynchings, Jim Crow Laws, Black Codes, economic exploitation, and acts of racial terror, including the bombing of Tulsa and the Atlanta Race Massacre. And our resilience, talent, and determination emerged again with the creation of the NAACP, the Divine 9, UNIA, and black educational institutions.

During the Civil Rights Movement, the backlash came in the form of bombed churches, the murder of Emmett Till, Malcom X, Medgar Evers, and countless others, and the assassination of Dr. King.  Yet out of that fire rose a burgeoning Black middle class, institutions of power, unprecedented political representation, and a generation rooted in Black power that refused to be turned back.

Today, we face the backlash to the Obama presidency—a wave of efforts to dismantle civil rights, eviscerate voting rights, erase hard history, and block diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
And once again, we rise. We organize. We unite—because every step forward has always been met with resistance.

But history is a testament: we endure, we evolve, we overcome.

Juneteenth isn’t about celebrating the removal of the shackles of chattel slavery or the chains of cognitive captivity. It must be what we make it. On June 19th, let’s recommit to resisting all forms of racism and white supremacy and commit to a revolution to create an America that no longer thrives on hypocrisy but that is truly home to all ot its citizens equally.