IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 155th ANNIVERSARY OF JUNETEENTH

Juneteenth Made Black People Free — But Not Equal

America has never reconciled racial inequities

An African American man drinks out of a “colored” water cooler. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1939. Image courtesy Library of Congress.

“In slave times the Negro was kept subservient and submissive by the frequency and severity of the scourging, but, with freedom, a new system of intimidation came into vogue; the Negro was not only whipped and scourged; he was killed.” — (Ida B. Wells, A Red Record, 1895)

On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, with good news — over 250,000 enslaved Black people were freed by executive decree. Two years earlier, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” This moment in history highlights the desperateness of colonizers willing to become traitors and fight against the federal government to maintain power over Black people.

After the abolition of slavery, Lincoln's federal government granted white people reparations for losing slaves. Yet, formerly enslaved Africans got absolutely nothing for their hard work. White people need to remember who built this nation. Maybe then, they would be grateful and stop constantly accusing Black people of being lazy, stupid, angry, or brutish. We are none of…