06/19/2024
Liberty & Justice for All | Many of us learned that the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, marked the end of slavery in the US. However, the enslavement of black people in America continued for two and a half years, before the news of freedom finally reached everyone who was enslaved. On June 19, 1865, enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, became the last to receive the announcement that they were lawfully free. Since then, this date has been celebrated as the official end to slavery and a turning point for our nation. Deriving its name from combining “June” and “nineteenth,” this annual commemoration of the emancipation from slavery was a first step in the struggle for equal rights for black Americans. The process of dismantling the formal structures of white supremacy continued from 1865-1965 (Jim Crow law era), through the passage of the Civil Rights Act (1964), the Voting Rights Act (1965), and the Fair Housing Act (1968). While Congress recently designated Juneteenth an official holiday, the meaning of Juneteenth for black Americans has been a lived reality for 156 years. For more than a century and a half, Juneteenth has served as a touchtone for bearing witness to slavery and its afterlife, a space for mobilization against white supremacy, and a platform for racial justice - a celebration of progress and recognition that there is still much work to do. “Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.” ― Coretta Scott King
