June 18, 2021: In 1619, the first 350 kidnapped Africans were shackled and shipped to what is today known as the United States of America. Black people had been free. Now they were enslaved by a vicious system built on white supremacy that has defined the U.S. since its inception.
Since that moment, each hard-won victory towards Black freedom and liberation has been met with a backlash from those who hold power in and benefit from white supremacy.
Indeed, it was a full two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863) before June 19th, 1865, when Union soldiers, led by General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War was over and that the people who had been enslaved in the South were free. According to General Order Number 3:
“The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.”
Today, June 19 is celebrated annually as Juneteenth, the oldest national commemoration of the end of slavery in the U.S. Juneteenth is observed as a day of celebration, a day of reflection on how far we have come, and a day that reminds us that the fight for Black freedom is far from over.
From emancipation to the 13th Amendment to Reconstruction to the civil rights movement to affirmative action to the election of Barack Obama to last year’s uprisings against police violence, every step forward has been met swiftly with rhetorical, political, and physical violence.
The struggle for Black liberation continues today, because it must. It must continue until Black people are truly free: from discrimination, surveillance, criminalization, police terror, and every other form of racial aggression and oppression. As the great abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass said in 1857, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.”
As an organization led by and accountable to women of color, especially Black women, Positive Women’s Network – USA (PWN) is committed to the struggle for equity and Black liberation. Today, we pause to remember and honor our ancestors for whom emancipation came too late as well as those for whom it represented a new, if extraordinarily challenging, beginning. PWN will be closed Monday, June 21, in observation of Juneteenth.
“I am proud to lead an organization that recognizes the historical significance of Juneteenth to this country and to Black people,” said PWN Co-Executive Director Venita Ray. “Growing up in California, I did not hear much about Juneteenth until I moved to the South. Now people are acknowledging the importance of this day all over the country. It forces us to remember our history: the historical context and what Black people in this country have been through. It is a reminder of our strength, determination, and resilience. We stand on the shoulders of giants who fought, took incalculable risks, and died for our liberation.”
