Juneteenth 2021: None of us are free until African Americans are free

Juneteenth has finally received the official recognition it deserves.  

While such recognition is long overdue, Juneteenth this year must also be a time to look honestly at the bitter legacy of slavery and the continuing inequality of African Americans – and how that inequality undermines the fight for justice for all.

Juneteenth emerged out of the fiery trial of the Civil War. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston to take command of all the Union Army’s troops in Texas. Confederate units in Texas had refused to stand down even after General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April 1865. (Confederate units in Texas continued their killing until early June 1865.) Upon his arrival, Granger immediately issued General Order Number 3.

It read:

“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 personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”

Ever since that order was issued, June 19 — “Juneteenth” – has been commemorated with parades, rallies, picnics, and family reunions.

Over the last 18 months, dramatic developments thrust Juneteenth into the national consciousness, laying the foundation for an official holiday. The pandemic sparked widespread condemnation of the systemic racism in America’s for-profit health care system. The murder of former Texas resident George Floyd led to innumerable protests on June 19, 2020.

Juneteenth provides a striking example of how African American history is at the very heart of U.S. history. Without slavery, the capitalist system in America itself would not exist. Juneteenth shows that the fate of all the dispossessed is inextricably bound up with the fate of African Americans.

When African Americans advance, we all move forward. And the opposite is also true: In America, whether in the electoral arena, in police-community relations, or in the workplace, the general assault on democracy invariably starts with an attack on the rights of African Americans. Again and again, we have seen a pattern: When rights expand for black Americans, this has a democratizing effect for everyone, but this is then followed by a reversal of reforms when the powerful decide they need to turn the clock back.

After the Civil War, the progressive state governments established in the former Confederacy were overthrown with the defeat of Reconstruction. The gains of the civil rights movement of 1946 to 1968 have been under assault for decades. This reversal of rights continues today. Nixon’s call for “law and order,” Reagan’s attack on welfare programs and his “war on drugs,” Clinton’s welfare “reform” and crime bills, the mass incarceration, the routine murders of blacks by police, the loss of protections against search and seizure – all began with an assault on black Americans. That assault sets back democracy for everyone.

This pattern continues today. It can be seen clearly in the current attack on the right to vote. This is especially true in the state where Juneteenth began – Texas.

Texas already has some of the nation’s most restrictive voting laws. Yet the Republican-controlled state legislature there is moving to pass a bill (Senate Bill 7) which will restrict absentee ballots, punish those who assist voters, and empower partisan poll watchers. The original version of the bill even included the phrase “purity of the ballot,” a term that was once used in the Texas state constitution and during the Jim Crow era as the basis for excluding black residents from all-white primaries.

In early May, addressing hundreds of people protesting the bill outside the Texas State Capitol in Austin, former Representative Beto O’Rourke declared: “This is the single greatest attack on our democracy, not just in our lifetime, but perhaps in the lifetime of this very democracy.”

Mr. O’Rourke reminded the crowd that the Texas bill was among more than 360 Republican-backed measures that are being considered or have been enacted in state legislatures that would limit the right to vote.  

What’s happening in Texas is just one example of a systematic national effort to deprive millions of the vote. While these moves will disproportionately affect communities of color, they will also hit millions of other workers in economically distressed, marginalized communities. The consequences would be horrific, paving the way for outright fascists to obtain office.  

While all of us should welcome President Joe Biden’s decision to sign the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act on June 17, we cannot forget that two voting rights measures – the For the People Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act – are currently stalled in the U.S. Senate. So is the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The massive movement which developed after the murder of George Floyd brought millions into political activity. It is still fighting heroically, continuing the legacy of Juneteenth by struggling to end police brutality and to defend the right to vote.

The millions of people of all ethnic backgrounds who have taken to the streets and the voting booths to demand justice are clear that unless African Americans are free, none of us are free. That is what the long, brave fight to recognize Juneteenth has shown America.