EGA President and CEO
This Thursday, EGA honors Juneteenth, a national day of remembrance and reflection of the long-fought and hard-won freedom for African Americans that catalyzed intersecting movements for peace, dignity, and justice.
Juneteenth (June 19) commemorates the de facto liberation of African Americans from chattel slavery. Over 150 years ago, 250,000 enslaved African Americans in Galveston Bay, Texas, were emancipated on June 19, 1865. These enslaved peoples were denied legally recognized freedoms available to their peers for over two years after the executive decree in the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation stated that “all persons held as slaves…shall be free.” The newly liberated people of Texas celebrated their freedom by establishing Juneteenth.
As African Americans celebrate this historical day, Juneteenth is an opportunity for allies to reflect on the United States’ continued journey towards justice. We all know that the story of Juneteenth did not end at Galveston Bay. It is a significant event in the multigenerational work of liberation. African Americans continued to wage nonviolence across contexts to fight for civil rights through the late 1800s and 1900s. These efforts resulted in securing voting rights and outlawing discrimination, which has benefited all Americans. Further, the Civil Rights Movement bore the modern-day environmental justice movement and inspired movements for justice in other marginalized communities.
EGA honors Juneteenth because it serves us well to recall that today's challenges did not start in this lifetime, nor will they end within our lifetime. The effectiveness of our response relies on each of us to recall our history, sharpen our present-day lens, and connect to our specific lineages of organizing. We can apply these lessons to guide our support of communities and the future we want, tomorrow.
We are living in an increasingly dangerous context for marginalized peoples. Authoritarianism is spreading worldwide in opposition to a generational tide towards interdependence. We have been here before and won at great cost. We have won against forces of state-sanctioned violence and terror. While the challenges have evolved, so has our organizing, strategy, and collective power. We have faced this moment many times over, over centuries. And it is our time to push back against the worst impulses of scarcity and fear.
We remember Juneteenth because it tells us a story of our strengths that can and should revitalize the foundations of our collective practice of resistance. It reminds us of critical learning and the exercise of our abilities.
