06/19/2021
Juneteenth marks not only the freedom our Ancestors achieved, but the freedom we’re still fighting for
The ongoing significance Juneteenth remains important bc we continue to grapple with the tension between celebrating freedom and justice and the continued struggle to permanently secure both
This has been the challenge of generations, just as our Ancestors who resisted enslavement and imagined emancipation, but did not experience legal freedom until official news arrived on June 19, 1865. Their legacy and gift to us is that they woke up June 20th–and every morning since–fighting to maintain our freedom and expand its meaning. Our challenge today is to find and hold space for both celebration and struggle. We honor our Ancestors by acknowledging that which is good in our lives and stopping to revel in it. In addition, we inherit the obligation to continue their work to build a better, freer future for the generations that follow. Because, in many ways, THE FREEDOM WE’VE BEEN GIVEN IS THE FREEDOM WE MUST PASS ON
As this celebration of hard-won Black freedom makes its way into the mainstream, let’s be sure that we reckon with the history of American chattel slavery, honor the Black freedom fighters who brought its end, maintain the integrity of Juneteenth as a Black self-determined celebration, and commit ourselves fully to the continued struggle for reparations and freedom
So, let us say together, “Happy Juneteenth!” Let us be happy for the day our Ancestors were no longer legally held in the bo***ge of chattel slavery. Let us be happy we have the power to walk in their free footsteps, to rise each day to make the world anew. Let us be happy that, because we are free, we can help free somebody else
Every Juneteenth, let’s honor our Ancestors by acknowledging that which is good in our lives and pause to revel in it. We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us as we inherit the obligation to continue the work to build a free future for all Black people
Message inspired by and includes reflections from Dr. Melanye T. Price’s The Ongoing Significance of Juneteenth (read in full in link in bio), and the spirit of BLM’s Dr. Melina Abdullah