“That the US doesn’t have an Emancipation Day to mark our abolishing an institution antithetical to our founding ideals of freedom & liberty speaks to the ongoing cover-up and our inability, still, to acknowledge what we did and who we are… Juneteenth should be a national holiday.”– Hannah Jones
Some ways you can celebrate and engage today:
- What Is Juneteenth? Many Rivers to Cross- By Henry Louis Gates Jr.
- The Quintessential Americanness of Juneteenth- By VANN R. NEWKIRK II
- No More Excuses — It’s Time To Declare Juneteenth A Federal Holiday- By Seth Cohen
Listen:
- Tricia Hersey on REST as RESISTANCE– from podcast, For the Wild
- Honor Juneteenth by listening to speeches by legendary Black activist Angela Davis on Spotify
Watch:
Juneteenth Explained- VICE
This Is Why Juneteenth Is Important for America- The Root
Why all Americans should honor Juneteenth- VOX
Queries:
- What would it mean for Juneteenth to be a national holiday?
- What would it mean to rest for the people enslaved who couldn’t rest for hundreds of years?
- What is your right next step in working towards racial justice?
Follow the lead of Black creators:
Another way to celebrate and continue this work is to continue working towards racial justice. For folks who might be asking ” what is my right next step?” we have a list of resources and starting points that we hope you can engage with on our blog here: https://www.quakervoluntaryservice.org/what-is-your-right-next-step/
Headlined poem and art by Tasha J Fierce
We are deliberate and unafraid.
The bells are ringing around the world
in cities I will never visit
Our names are printed over doorways
Breonna, George, Ahmaud, Nina
Those who will never see this world upended
for their want of breath
the fruits of labor extracted from our bones
or again have their bodies made tender
by this indifferent place
On this morning we cannot forget
the sun on their faces
our commitment to freedom
cutting through messages of despair
full moon nights when we read our palms
and cried tears not from sadness
but from our grit through endless wind
Acid rain to tear gas on Black skin
I pluck at the chicken heart of an eagle
asking
does this country love?
A thing so deftly malicious
so haunted by the ghosts of its dream
can only find profit in sorrow
We are summoning the spirits of ancestors
Audre, Lucille, Ntozake, Harriet
Fannie, Martin, Malcolm, Fred
We are linking arms
plunging headlong into the fray
We are deliberate
and unafraid.