Juneteenth Celebration

Through all the suffering and anguish we still find ourselves living to fight another day because when times get tough our people are the last to fold, the last to buckle under the weight and pressure and abasement that comes with being a black man and woman in America.

Our bondage and affliction did not end with the North winning the civil war, our bondage and affliction did not end with the Emancipation Proclamation, our bondage and affliction did not end on June 19th, 1865 - two years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation-  when Union soldiers led by Major General Gordon Granger landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and the enslaved that were there, were now free.

We are not where we were by any means; we have made many strides toward balancing the scales of justice, but today, in the year 2020, it has been revealed and proven that we STILL have a long way to go in our march towards equality and justice.

We have witnessed modern day lynchings, murders that have etched their mark in history, and have been ingrained into our hearts and memories forever. Today as we celebrate Juneteenth, let us celebrate our CULTURE, let us celebrate our BLACKNESS but let us also remember and acknowledge the sacrifices that were made by our venerated black leaders in the past that marched before us so that we could eventually follow in their footsteps and march in the name of freedom. 

George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmad Arbery, Sean Reed, Robert Fuller, Toyin Salau, Rayshard Brooks, and the many others who have lost their lives at the hands of those who were supposed to protect and serve…  their names will live on forever and we will continue to be their voice in this fight toward equality and righting the egregious wrongs that our black brothers and sisters have been subjected to.  We will be heard!

Happy Juneteenth #WeAreGenZ