Celebrate Juneteenth 2023

Celebrate freedom, celebrate Juneteenth!

I started an annual Juneteenth celebration post in 2018 after reading a tweet from Jemar Tisby (oddly enough I kept my job and nobody exploded) about why Juneteenth should be a national holiday. Happily, it became a federal holiday in 2021.

Here is that 2018 post:

Happy day to celebrate the end of slavery in the U.S. Juneteenth is a holiday in 40 states; here is a tweet from Jemar Tisby which links to an article that makes a case for Juneteenth as a national holiday. Whether Juneteenth should be the day or another day should be designated, I agree there should be such a holiday to commemorate the end of slavery.

Juneteenth Photo: Public domain: Source: The Portal to Texas History Austin History Center, Austin Public Library. Date: June 19, 1900. Author: Mrs. Charles Stephenson

Despite the fact that Juneteenth is rooted in verified historical events, certain far right leaders denigrate the observance. Turning Point USA’s leader Charlie Kirk calls it a “neo-segregationist federal holiday” and “pagan garbage.” Far right commentator Matt Walsh says the holiday is intended to “promote white guilt.”

As opinion writer Dead Obeidallah pointed out, at least two leading GOP candidates — Mike Pence and Ron DeSantis — want to turn back the clock and return Fort Liberty to Fort Bragg in honor of Confederate general Braxton Bragg. In such an environment, we need more holidays and observances to remind us of our history. In 2023, how can support for any aspect of the Confederacy by considered a political plus? It should never be.

Speaking of Jemar Tisby, he has become strangely radioactive. The Board of Trustees of my own former employer, Grove City College, said they made a mistake by having him speak in chapel in 2020. More recently, two Christian colleges fired professors who used Tisby’s materials in their classes and course documents. Tisby’s “offense” is that he reminds white Christians about the history of racism in the U.S. In like manner, Juneteenth reminds us of the end of slavery, but one cannot celebrate this day without remembering what led to it. There are some who simply don’t know what to do with truth which causes them discomfort but deny it or fight against it.

Grove City College made no mistake having Jemar Tisby speak in chapel. The mistake was the Board’s failure to listen to him and the faculty and administrators who supported him. We make no mistake listening to and facing hard truth. We go astray when run from what we find when we look the facts. So today celebrate and help actualize the freedoms promised to all Americans no matter race, creed, color, religion, who you love, and so on. Today, celebrate Juneteenth.