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The
good news is that Juneteenth is a federal holiday. The bad news is
that Black people still need that freedom, which a June 19
celebration fails to provide. And while we should not trivialize the
symbolism of a federal Juneteenth holiday, it is no substitute for
federal legislation that would help make Black people truly free.
In
what can only be described as an unexpected move in 2021, on the tail
end of a historic pandemic, President Joe Biden signed the law making
Juneteenth
a national holiday.
The legislation passed the Senate unanimously, with all but 14
Republican white men
in Congress approving of the new holiday.
And
while Texan
lawmakers
Rep. Sheila
Jackson Lee,
a Democrat, and Sen. John
Cornyn,
a Republican, made the Juneteenth holiday possible in a rare show of
bipartisanship, it is worth noting that Texas Gov. Greg
Abbott just
signed a law banning the teaching of critical
race theory.
Texas is also one of the numerous white nationalist-led states
pushing bills to suppress voting rights for Black people and cement
white minority rule for generations.
In
other words, they will give us Juneteenth, and hope we are not
looking as they ban any curriculum that teaches Americans about the
history of Juneteenth, and pass laws - 389
bills in 48 states
- stripping Black Americans of their citizenship rights.
Juneteenth,
which began in Texas, is our Independence Day. Because on July 4,
1776, Black people remained in a state of enslavement. Juneteenth is
a day of celebration and a day of commemoration, a day to remember
the ancestors and lost family members, a time to build ourselves up,
reclaim our history and center ourselves and our experiences.
Further,
Juneteenth is a reminder that freedom has always been a precarious
proposition for Black folks in America, filled with conditions and
dashed hopes, shifting goalposts, backsliding and lots of bloodshed.
And justice has always been delayed if not denied. When President
Abraham
Lincoln
enacted his Emancipation Proclamation on New Year’s Day in
1863, that did not impact the millions who were enslaved by the
Confederacy. Even when the Civil War ended in April 1865 after
secessionist General Robert
E. Lee
surrendered to the Union Army, Black people were enslaved for another
two months. It was not until June 19 when Union Major-General Gordon
Granger
traveled to Galveston and notified the enslaved they were free.
The
Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and the
Reconstruction-era civil rights laws also freed Black people, until
Jim Crow wiped them away. So, too, did the Civil Rights and Voting
Rights Acts a century later. Now, white supremacist lawmakers hope to
enact a Jim Crow 2.0 and erase all Black progress.
The
moral of the story is that none of us are free until we are all free.
Whether back in 1865 or in 2021, when America tells Black people they
have been emancipated, one must read the fine print.
Today,
the police murder of George
Floyd
and countless other Black souls, and the attack on the U.S. Capitol
have forced the nation to focus on systemic racism in policing and
the criminal justice system, the body politic, our institutions, and
everywhere in American society.
Although
Black people were supposedly emancipated, and have lived in this
country for over 400 years, we still live in a hostile environment.
The remnants of slavery are in our laws, policies, practices,
procedures and customs. Racism is systemic and institutional, not
merely a few bad apples or a small group of people doing harmful
things. This is not simply a matter of a few neo-Nazis or Proud Boys
burning Black churches, but an issue of power and white privilege,
and the microaggressions Black people face in schools, in the
workplace and daily life.
The
U.S. has not come to terms with its legacy of racism and white
supremacy, including a history of slavery and how it denies Black
people of their humanity, dignity and equality.
Now
is a perfect time to honor Juneteenth, and we need this. However,
honoring Juneteenth means making the promise of freedom real. A
holiday is not the end, but rather the beginning of our journey to
true liberation. Black people will not be free until Congress passes
crucial legislation, including the For
the People Act,
which would restore voting rights and bring about electoral reform;
the George
Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021,
which would remedy racial abuse in law enforcement; the John
Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act,
which would restore the protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965
gutted by the Supreme Court, and especially H.R. 40, which would
establish a commission to study reparations
for slavery.
Anything
less than this would be pure symbolism and empty slogans at this
point.
This
commentary was originally published by The
Grio
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