Although it was only designated a federal holiday in 2021, Juneteenth National Independence Day has of course been celebrated in Black American communities since the late 1860s. But until President Joe Biden signed it into law, the holiday was not widely known to most Americans, who either had no prior knowledge of the historical significance of the day or saw the liberation of Black Americans from chattel slavery callously as a “Black thing” with limited social importance.
Designating Juneteenth as a federal holiday, despite its fair share of critics and detractors, has birthed a renewed interest in the oft undiscussed issues of slavery, race and the most incendiary issue — reparations for the descendants of American slavery.
I submit that the contention and tensions generated by this subject are a sign of hope.
The very mention of Black reparations often ignites heated debates and sharp visceral reactions. I submit that the contention and tensions generated by this subject are a sign of hope. At the very least, American people are talking to one another.
The contemporary reparations movement embodies a courage that the American public has not seen since the 1960s. In it, we recognize movements such as the historical United States Colored Troops, trade unionists, freedom riders, abolitionists, anti-war, anti-apartheid and unsung clubwomen activists who decimated the racist notions that Black Americans were inferior in body, mind and spirit. In 2024, we still have battles to fight.
The reparations movement is an in-depth, multilateral one, which contrary to some misguided beliefs requires much more than providing funds to those impacted by the lasting effects of slavery. It will take some time, and many resources, to roll out. It’s important to understand that for reparations to be effective, we need to elect officials who will support a number of practical reparative measures, including a specific federal agency to holistically address the issues of Black Americans (think a new Freedmen's Bureau or a bureau of Black American affairs); a permanent nonpartisan Cabinet position for a Black American czar voted for by Black Americans; abolishing unjust lending and credit and home appraisal practices; restitution for descendants of Black veterans cheated out of GI Bill benefits; compensation for documentable victims of racial terrorism and systemic economic discrimination or exclusion; restitution for survivors of artists and inventors cheated by racist policies; tax holidays for Black businesses; a fund for Black farmers, and essential Black professional personnel (doctors, dentists, scientists, nurses and others); guaranteed minimum wage for incarcerated Black men, compensation for descendants of domestic and field workers cheated out of Social Security and sundry government benefits, abolition of blood quantum policy of the U.S. government, the creation of a fiducial brain trust to properly allocate funds to persons of solely American Black lineage, and a permanent working group to create a necessary national education program to impress upon all Americans why reparations are in their benefit.
American history is entrenched in the institutional racism active in real time today; it is all around us.
In our last conversations, my late dear friend the great historian Dr. John Hope Franklin and I discussed the Tulsa Massacre of 1921. His personal sense of loss could be felt in the wispiness of the timbre in his voice when he would recount the tragedy. My favorite elder maternal cousin, Matthew Fogg, has been fighting racism for more than 30 years in a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Marshals Service. My former pastor, Congressman Rev. Walter Fauntroy, was with Martin Luther King Jr. when the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 was signed. He has endured all manner of attacks from people who have penalized him for his commitment to justice for Black Americans. Today, he is alone, wheelchair-bound, destitute and forgotten by many. I have extended family in East Saint Louis, where there has never been an accurate count of how many people were slaughtered by mobs, trade unionists and the Illinois National Guard. Major corporations continue to deliberately violate the EPA standard for polluting the environment of East Saint Louis with impunity. At the core of these seemingly unrelated issues is the continuing legacy of chattel slavery and its aftereffects — and powerful proof that we need functional reparations as an essential component to help repair our society.
This November, scores of millions of citizens will have an opportunity to vote, and those of us eager to preserve our more perfect union and help Black Americans be truly able to pursue equality should support municipal, state, local and federal candidates who are courageous enough to confront the past with solutions, rather than excuses.
We must involve ourselves via research and study and mobilizing like-minded people to pressure our elected leaders and members of the corporate and cultural elite.
Juneteenth and the optimism that it has unleashed are blessings. That ballot you will hold and your voice in your throat are tools to make true the promise of democracy. When November comes, it’s imperative that we all use them.