#juneteenth

[keyara-nyasha]

[creatingblackcharacters]

Well!

Do you know the history of Juneteenth?

Kinda? I know it's for Black Americans but not why

No

Yes

I plead 'Not American'

Voting ended onJun 20, 2025

So first, let's clear a common misconception: no, President Abraham Lincoln did not love Black people nor see them as human equals. At best he was centrist about it (though, even his implication that 'exceptional' Black men ought to vote got him assassinated).

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do, it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union...I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free."

The "freeing of slaves" after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 was meant to kneecap the economic and military powers of the seceded South. Lettuce stop making a white savior figure out of Lincoln, or thinking that my people's shackles were unchained via anything other than desperate war strategy and extreme violence. Think on that, for a moment.

That being said!

Juneteenth

Juneteenth is a time to gather as a family, reflect on the past and look to the future. Discover ways to celebrate this African American cul

But not everyone in Confederate territory would immediately be free. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas. The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state, were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as "Juneteenth," by the newly freed people in Texas.

Consider going through the Smithsonian website to learn about Juneteenth! Recognize why it's an actual day of freedom, versus July 4th and the independence of a select few.

[bideogaymes]

the concept of MLK Jr. Day & Juneteenth sales by nonblack owned and operated businesses who either dont hire Black American people, underpay and overwork the Black employees they do have, and who don’t get the holidays off but their majority nonblack corporate counterparts DO, is a level of present day dystopia bred in necropolitics & the continued cannibalization of Blackness to sustain a zombie economic system that’s hinged on us as products to work.

[noble-kale]

It's Juneteenth, I'm a Black Texan, descendant of enslaved Black Texans. Texas is the only state that fought two different wars to protect slavery and chattel slavery ended the last for it. Juneteenth to me is to celebrate that part of overt white supremacy coming to an end, but it was not the end of white supremacy. It did not stop, with the lynching, the police violence, the redlining, the environmental racism, the segregation. Juneteenth represents a good win aganist the fight against white supremacy, but it's not over.

And for this Juneteenth, I ask for help for my friends that are the victims of this same US white supremacy. Not just today, but everyday Gazans deserve any type of help that you can give them. The technology that is used to segregate and attack and police and destroy Palestinians is the same technology that is sold to Texas to be used for the border patrol and to harass and control immigrants and border communities. This is one, connected fight aganist white supremacy and US control and destruction of Black and Brown bodies. So I ask today if you could donate this, or share, to help provide for a mother and her 2 now fatherless children in Gaza, or anyone else in Gaza who needs help. Like this family with a sick baby. Just do something, especially if you got the day off.

[alwaysbewoke]

—Did you know that Juneteenth is also celebrated in a part of Mexico? Nacimiento Mexico was once home to thousands who escaped slavery in the US. As many as 10,000 slaves followed a clandestine Southern Underground Railroad to Mexico. —To date, many Black Mexicans from the Texas area retrace a portion of the same route their African American ancestors followed in 1850 when they escaped slavery. —Descendants of slaves who escaped across the southern border observe Texas’s emancipation holiday with their own unique traditions in the village of Nacimiento. —Slave hunters would patrol the southern border for escapees, led by the Texas Rangers but the Mexican army would be there waiting for them (the slave hunters) to turn them away.

x

[coldshrugs]

happy juneteenth!!

tell your black friends you love them. donate to mutual aid causes that will have direct impact for black folks. show black peers in fandom some love for their creative works. 💗

[rolledincense]

Juneteenth Celebrations in Milwaukee, WI from 1988 to 2006.

[sentientsky]

just a friendly reminder that, just because slavery was formally "abolished" in the so-called united states* in 1865, enslavement itself is still ongoing in the form of incarceration, which disproportionately affects Black and Indigenous people

(*i say "so-called" because the US is a settler-colonial construction founded on greed, extraction, and white supremacy) recommended readings/resources:

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

"How the 13th Amendment Kept Slavery Alive: Perspectives From the Prison Where Slavery Never Ended" by Daniele Selby

"So You're Thinking About Becoming an Abolitionist" by Mariame Kaba

"The Case for Prison Abolition: Ruth Wilson Gilmore on COVID-19, Racial Capitalism & Decarceration" from Democracy Now! [VIDEO]