Juneteenth: a Celebratory Act of Resistance

Where were you when you first learned about Juneteenth? I honestly cannot recall when I was taught about the holiday, but I do remember cycling through the repetitive topics of slavery and civil rights movements all throughout grade school. When it comes to the topic of Black history, our communities in America become polarized. Many of us continue to honor our Black community; using the current state of racial inequality as a means to highlight our ferocious past. We aim to ensure that the suffering, hope, and graciousness of our enslaved African Americans will not die in the light of ‘moving on’. Many others, however, see our history of slavery as a mere blip in time; a bruise on our nation that deserves an inadequate band-aid. 

We all know what happens when you grow up in a hostile home: a haunting, cruel energy can stain your character and morals until you’ve eventually grown into an adult raising children of your own. For some, pride’s grip holds on and we die with the cruelty that we never deserved but inflicted upon others. For a lot of us, the healing comes much later, after we’ve confronted many mirrors in the faces of those we are supposed to love. If you’re lucky, though, you’ll have gained the tools and knowledge to heal from your past and act with compassion so that your children may not weather the same cruelty. Our nation is the hostile home riddled with a cruel past and we are its children. Now, there is no doubt that brilliant and beautiful things have happened here in America — things we should all take pride and indulge in, but I believe true patriotism comes from an undying love for humanity. I believe that deep within all of our spirits is the collective desire to see ourselves in each other. I also believe that this desire is met with profound resistance because what lies within those reflections may be what we fear most: the truth of our pain and how we’ve all gotten here. How do we boldly arrive at a place of clarity and compassion? The answer is knowledge. Understanding the history of Black Americans is a vital way of steering humanity in a progressive direction.

I know that history can drag on a bit (and half of us have ADHD) so I am going to try to make this history lesson as concise as possible. Juneteenth is America’s second Independence Day, a day that until June 17th, 2021 was not recognized as a federal holiday. What had happened was that when President Abraham Lincoln decided he wasn’t really down with the whole slavery thing, the south lost their shit and decided to form the Confederacy in 1861. The Confederate States of America consisted of 11 states including Texas (hey, Mrs. Carter), Georgia, and Tennessee. This republic was never formally recognized as one but if you drive just a few hours north of Detroit you are sure to find yourself in a museum of Confederate memorabilia. The formation of the Confederacy ignited the deadliest American war: the Civil War. Nearly two years into the war, the resistance of the Confederacy was met with the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863. The proclamation declared all enslaved people within the Confederate states were free but this, too, was met with resistance in cities like Galveston, Texas. Some plantation owners refused to share the news with their exploited laborers, keeping them for another two and half years until 2,000 union troops arrived in the city and announced that the 250,000 enslaved African Americans were free by executive decree. In order to guarantee the abolishment of slavery, the 13th Amendment of the American Constitution was ratified on December 6th, 1865, forbidding slavery across the United States. Although the abolition of slavery expanded the civil rights for Black Americans, an undeniable humanitarian crisis became present in the south. Four million Black people who had spent their days building a nation were given their freedom and left with very little means to survive. The south became an even more hostile environment for the Black population, enduring persistent violence. Even with haunting darkness, our Black ancestors managed to champion their own community; building schools, churches, families, and hope every decade since 1865. 

Every year that we choose to celebrate Juneteenth is a continuous act of resistance against the racist and oppressive systems of America. Without the labor, blood, sweat, and tears of Black Americans, our nation wouldn’t be what it is today. Without the grace, patience, and hope of Black Americans, our nation wouldn’t be what it is today. Black ingenuity, art, and cuisine has shaped American culture and has managed to keep the spirit of our nation vibrant and resilient. We celebrate Juneteenth because we have witnessed history repeat itself under the darkness of oppression and police brutality. We celebrate Juneteenth because without the liberation of our Black community we are merely witnesses to some falsehood of the “American Dream”. In our simplest, most innocent forms, we are all children of this world - who are we to deny anyone a life of freedom?

Happy Juneteenth — every year, we dedicate this celebration to the power of community and to our enslaved ancestors. Madame C.J. Walker, Emmet Till, Martin Luther King Jr, Ruth Charlotte Ellis, George Floyd, & Breonna Taylor … to every member of the Black community: we will never stop fighting for your liberation.

“Let me put it this way, that from a very literal point of view, the harbors and the ports, and the railroads of the country–the economy, especially of the Southern states–could not conceivably be what it has become, if they had not had, and do not still have, indeed for so long, for many generations, cheap labor. I am stating very seriously, and this is not an overstatement: *I* picked the cotton, *I* carried it to the market, and *I* built the railroads under someone else’s whip for nothing. For nothing.

The Southern oligarchy, which has still today so very much power in Washington, and therefore some power in the world, was created by my labor and my sweat, and the violation of my women and the murder of my children. This, in the land of the free, and the home of the brave. And no one can challenge that statement. It is a matter of historical record.” James Baldwin, excerpt from Baldwin v. Buckley at Cambridge University February 18th, 1965.

Photo: 1975 Juneteenth celebration in Forth Worth, Texas