Juneteenth: A Reminder that Policy Change is Only the Beginning

Here comes June 19th.

I didn’t grow up celebrating Juneteenth. I couldn’t tell you what I was doing on any June 19th throughout my childhood and most of my adult life. I was probably wearing shorts, riding my bike. Might have been playing ball at the Hill Center, just down the street and up a couple blocks from home. Could’ve been in the studio belting out rhymes, trying to craft a masterpiece. Perhaps at the movies. Those were all things I did in the summertime. But the date itself meant nothing to me.

I didn’t know jack about Juneteenth.

We celebrated The Fourth. We grilled on The Fourth. We waved sparklers on The Fourth. We met up with family on The Fourth. We dang near set ourselves on fire on The Fourth. That was the tradition. And I suppose it’s worth noting, I’m from Indiana. But it probably doesn’t matter. I’m willing to bet a lot of black folks in a lot of places put more energy and barbecue sauce into celebrating The Fourth than Juneteenth.

Why was that? Because the Fourth was the big deal. School taught me about the Revolutionary War. From the Boston Tea Party to the shot heard ‘round the world to Yorktown, we got it all. I had a whole doggone class about that war. A WHOLE CLASS. I learned about one war for an entire year of my education. Then I learned about it again in another class a few years later.

On the other hand, school taught me Abraham Lincoln was a hero and he freed the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation. School taught me about the Civil War. It did. I learned that it happened. We never delved into the complexities of that story with the nuance of the valiant stories of the American Revolution. We learned why one war happened. It was about freedom and “no taxation without representation” and so on and so forth. The other was always more vague. States’ rights… and, you know… other stuff.

Why? Why was the “why” of the Civil War always so broad and glossed over?

And let’s be clear, I never felt short-changed in my learning. I didn’t know to feel short-changed. That’s the tricky thing about getting a sub-par education. You don’t know you got one until you educate yourself later.

The day that became Juneteenth was June 19, 1865. It was the day Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas and read the following to plantation owners and enslaved people:

“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 rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.” (source: History of Juneteenth)

Ah, ok. Dope. That was the day slavery ended. Good to know. But wait. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863. It took two-and-a-half years for the enslaved people of Texas to find out they were free. On that day, newly freed black folks dropped everything and bounced. Employer? Hired laborer? Nah. No thanks.

Juneteenth commemorates the dying exhale of the official institution of slavery.

Policy says it ended in 1863. Action says much later.

Everything I learned about systemic racism, I learned as an adult. I learned none of it in school. Not a bit. In school I learned Abe Lincoln freed the slaves with his autograph and, oh yeah, there was a war in between, but the point is that the white man with the tall black hat freed your grandma’s grandma, kid.

That simple lens was thankfully broken as I got older. I’m thankful for the people I came into contact with as a college student and as an adult, who led me down the paths to learning the things I didn’t get. Because now I’m able to draw the lines between the dots. Now I have context.

The emancipation proclamation was the policy. Juneteenth was the change. And yes, it was only the beginning of change — we learned that other policies needed battling and other shifts needed to occur for the United States to step closer to genuine equity, and we still have a ways to go — but it was a change. If for no other reason, understand the value of Juneteenth rests there. At this very moment, we are fighting for policy change. As movements, we advocate the importance of policy change, and it is important. But Juneteenth tells us the fight doesn’t end with new legislation or the signing of some scroll by a bunch of white men. In fact, that may be where the real fighting begins.

So, here comes June 19th.

I know things I didn’t know 20 years ago. This time, I’ll remember where I was on June 19th. I was honoring a historic moment that led to my free-ish reality, perhaps breaking some social distancing rules (shh!) with some of my people. I was reflecting on all that still needs to be done to bring the next wave of change on the path to true freedom and equity. I was expressing gratitude for my continued education outside the classroom.

Most of all, I was doing my part to evoke change, and wrestling with my own understanding of what change looks like.