"Freedom is the last, best hope of earth."
- Abraham Lincoln
As we celebrate our Independence Day, the day in which we recognize and honor our freedom and independence, let us also recognize and celebrate Juneteenth, a commemoration of the emancipation of “ all” enslaved people in the US as our new federal holiday. Abraham Lincoln said, “We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.” June 19, 1865 was the date that Union soldiers brought the message of the Emancipation Proclamation to the last slaves in Galveston, Texas (more than 2 years after it’s official signing and many months after the Civil War had ended). It took the United States 158 years to make Juneteenth official and recognize it as a national holiday; the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was signed into law in 1983.
Indeed, freedom should be and must be an element of human life for which not one should long for it, fight for it, or die for it. Unfortunately, the journey to freedom has often been a painful, dangerous and long one during which desperation, misery and death have been some of the ingredients in forming our “Perfect Union.” Other integral elements in creating this wonderful experiment have also been hopefulness, faithfulness, determination and courage. The determination and courage of the oppressed and those who wanted change were the driving force for the word liberty meaning “liberty for all.”
We hope this edition of the Racial Justice Toolkit will give you, your family and friends an opportunity to reflect on the words “freedom” and “liberty” while exploring some (we hope all) of the selections we have chosen. Let us be thankful for each other, learn from our history in order to make a more perfect community.
