Juneteenth is the day that Black Americans celebrate freedom. While it started in Texas, the celebrations have spread to all parts of the country where there are Black people. It is an alternative holiday to July 4th, which has always been wrought with irony for the descendants of enslaved people. While America was declared independent of the tyranny of Britain on July 4, 1776, Africans were still being bought, sold, and shipped across the Atlantic. On June 19, 1865, however, the Galveston, Texas, community learned that the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed more than two years prior, and that those who were enslaved had been declared free. Free to build their own lives and families, free to pursue their dreams, and free to become full citizens in the American project. That day, June 19, 1865, the celebration called Juneteenth was born.
While Black people are no longer enslaved, on this Juneteenth we are still not fully free. Black people are 12 percent of the American adult population, but about 33 percent of the total prison population. We still face discrimination in housing, employment, and education. We have also been overrepresented in the number of COVID-19 deaths, dying at more than double the rate of whites. Three Black men have been found possibly lynched in this last week. And the police violence that started the recent protests has not stopped. As the current protests demonstrate, we are at yet another point of reckoning in this country regarding the treatment of Black people. We still cannot breathe.
Public health has a major role to play in this reckoning. Our health systems are failing Black folks on every side, from education to medical interventions. People in my own family remind me every day of how poorly we are cared for in any health care setting. The suspicion that we hold against health care and health research institutions is well earned. In fact, the modern study of gynecology is based on studies done on enslaved women by James Marion Sims, whose statues are still standing in various parts of the country. There are too many stories of Black people dying because of the actions of health care professionals, like this recent story of a woman twice being denied a test for COVID-19. Anti-Blackness is a national and ongoing public health crisis. To play its part in ending this pervasive way of thinking and acting in our country, public health has to go 400 years upstream to repair and rebuild connections with Black communities, as well as understand our traditions and values. There are many layers of mistrust, paternalism, microaggressions, and false information to work through.
With all that said, we still have to celebrate today. In the turmoil and trauma, we must make space for joy, rest, and curiosity. We owe it to ourselves and our ancestors to honor the day. We deserve a break from constant resistance and emotional labor. As poet Lucille Clifton says:
“Come celebrate with me that every day something has tried to kill me and has failed.”
Today, we recognize the light and power in each other. June is also Black Music Month and Pride Month. It is an opportunity to take stock of how far we’ve come, what and who sustains us, and to ponder the road ahead. Today, we meditate on what new freedoms will feel and look like. On this day in 1865, the announcement was clear: It’s over, you have been set free, the future is yours. Today, we breathe, if only just enough to keep going.
Lauren L. Jones
Associate Director of Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion
