Reflections on Juneteenth

On Saturday, June 19, more than 200 local residents of all ages and diverse backgrounds gathered at the Paul Revere Heritage Site to celebrate Juneteenth — a day to commemorate the emancipation of the last remaining enslaved African Americans in Texas by executive decree on June 19, 1865. In opening remarks excerpted below, Cynthia Holcombe, co-chair of the Canton Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, shared some of the historical context behind the celebration while also reflecting on the significance of the day’s events, both for Canton and for the nation as a whole.

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… The freed slaves of Texas would have their very first Juneteenth celebration in 1866, but it didn’t become an official holiday in the state of Texas until 1980. And since then, 49 states and the District of Columbia now recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday. And just two days ago, 156 years later, the U.S. Congress passed a bill making June 19, also known as Juneteenth National Independence Day, a federal holiday. Yet the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Bill has yet to pass.

Cynthia Holcombe speaks at the Juneteenth celebration. (Cynthia Rosina photo)

You’re probably asking yourself, how did the slaves in the state of Texas not know that they were free until two and a half years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation? There are a few theories as to how this may have occurred. One being that slave owners wanted to keep the Texas slaves working until the next harvest season. And since Texas was a Confederate state, they clearly had no interest in abolishing slavery. After all, slave labor, or “free labor,” had proven to be economically lucrative for this country.

And so, even after the last slaves were “freed” in Galveston, Texas, Blacks were still only “free” on paper, or to use today’s jargon, we were simply “free-ish.”

And even after the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery, the 14th Amendment which granted equal protection and citizenship to enslaved people, and the 15th Amendment which granted Blacks the right to vote were all adopted, Black people continued to fight for their inalienable rights.

Black people continued to be “free-ish.”

And even with Jim Crow, lynchings, segregation, civil rights, and more recently, the Black Lives Matter movement, we still continue to fight for our inalienable rights.

And although over 400 years has passed since the first slaves were brought to this country from Western Africa — a fact we must never forget, a fact we must never get over, and a fact we must never ignore — we still fight!

Fighting to be recognized as human beings when we’re killed in the streets and in our homes by police. Fighting to protect our voting rights, as laws are being created behind closed doors that make it significantly harder for Blacks to vote in certain states. Fighting to ensure all members of the Black community, including LGBTQ+ members, are seen and heard. Fighting to combat the enormous wealth disparity that exists between Blacks and whites, due to systemic racism. Fighting to ensure that we are treated equally by the justice system that was never designed for us. And even in the wake of COVID, a health pandemic that has killed over 600,000 people in the U.S. alone, we are still fighting for equal access to healthcare. Fighting as we remember how this country’s medical system treated over 600 Black men who were used as guinea pigs in the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. Fighting as we recall the inhumane act performed against Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman from Maryland whose immortalized cells were used after her death to study the growth of cancer cells, to research the human genome, and to develop the polio vaccine, all without her family’s knowledge or consent. These are just a few examples of the way in which Black people were disrespected, disregarded and dehumanized in this country.

Yet we fight, and we fight, and we fight. But we are so tired of fighting, when we are simply just trying to live — live in a country that doesn’t value Black lives; a country that doesn’t believe that we are worthy of reparations; a country that often makes us feel like we are not wanted and not worthy.

But we are worthy, and we are here! And we will always be here, prevailing in a country that we helped build, brick by brick, and crop by crop.

And we will continue to build — build families, build communities, build corporations, build schools, build financial networks, and build alliances.

And so I ask those of you who consider yourself allies to truly examine your role. Being an ally requires tremendous work. It requires truth, it requires discomfort, and it requires actions. And actions start with acknowledging your part in a system that promotes racial inequities. A system that intentionally and persistently omits Black historical events from our textbooks and our classrooms. A system that intentionally and persistently depicts Blacks as brutes and often ignores and disregards the many contributions that we’ve made and continue to make to this country.

So if you truly consider yourself an ally, you must be prepared to stand up, and not stand by. You must be prepared to make space for us, and be equipped to have difficult conversations with friends and family members who make racially insensitive comments and macroaggressive statements in your presence. In other words:

How do you ally when you’re in predominately white spaces?

How do you ally when your privilege is at stake?

How do you ally when nobody’s watching?

Again, How do you ally when nobody’s watching?

We owe it to our legacy to do better than the previous generation. Being complacent is no longer an option. This fight is not ours alone. This battle is not ours alone. We must all “suit up,” and we must all put “boots to the ground” in order to combat these issues.

And finally, please remember the importance of not just professing the change that is necessary, but performing the change that is necessary.

And now we celebrate Juneteenth!

Canton community, we are truly making history today, as this is the very first Juneteenth celebration being presented by the very first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee in the town of Canton. And although it is bittersweet, we are so excited and extremely proud to be part of this historic event. So let’s give ourselves a round of applause for making history today.

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Posted by Guest on Jul 2 2021. Filed under Featured Content, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.