Juneteenth is about recognizing how long the road to freedom really is
More than two years after President Abraham Lincoln declared “all persons held as slaves…forever free,” with the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation, white Texans continued to hold Black people in chattel slavery. There was no Twitter, no internet, not even telephones, and most enslaved Black people did not know they had been granted freedom, and it was in the interest of the Texan ruling class to keep it that way.
On June 19th, 1865, 2000 federal soldiers arrived in Galveston Texas issuing General Order No. 3, which stated, “The People of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”
On June 19th, 1865, 2000 federal soldiers arrived in Galveston Texas issuing General Order No. 3, which stated, “The People of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” As we know, slavery didn’t end there, many white slaveowners immediately ignored the order, and Black Americans continued to face violence and lynchings from organized criminal gangs of white businessmen, such as the Klu Klux Klan, often in partnership with law enforcement. In 1980, Texas became the first state to designate Juneteenth as a holiday. But it wasn't until the summer of 2021 after the Black Lives Matter uprisings that Congress passed a bill for federal recognition of the holiday.
Juneteenth is a day to reflect on the ways Black communities built and continue to build this country. It is a day to reflect on the ways racism and white supremacy are deeply intertwined with U.S. systems. It is a day to reflect on the reparations that have not been made. It is a day to recommit in the fight for Black liberation.
As formerly incarcerated people and their families and caregivers, we’ve had a glimpse of what it feels like to not have one’s basic freedom stripped. We send respect and appreciation to the great ancestors who survived hundreds of years of incarceration through legal slavery.
On Juneteenth, we celebrate freedom, but we also acknowledge what I’ve said before: freedom is both realized and delayed. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, yet it took over two years for the last enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas to even hear the news. That same kind of delay still exists today, especially when it comes to justice.