A few days ago, millions of people across the country flooded the streets in protest on No Kings Day. They held signs, locked arms, and raised their voices to remind those in power that the people still hold power too. It was a moment of clarity and a reminder that we’re not alone in this fight, and that even as regressive policy and political attacks roll back many important gains, we are not standing still. We are still fighting forward.
That’s what came to mind as I thought about Juneteenth this year.
Juneteenth exists because of a lie. For more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, people in Texas remained enslaved. Families like Horace and Emily Scull’s were kept in bondage by those who knew they were free but refused to give up power. That lie had a cost—years of unpaid labor, violence, and stolen time.
That history feels painfully relevant today. Misinformation and lies are once again being used as tools of control, tools that continue to harm Black communities. We’re told that community-based violence prevention doesn’t work, even when the data, and lived experience, prove otherwise. We’re told that our children are unsafe not because of guns, poverty, or isolation, but because of DEI programs and inclusive education. Funding is being stripped from life-saving programs under the guise of “protecting America’s children,” while the real costs are mounting.
So yes, we are rolling backward at a dizzying pace. The same tactics, erasure, fearmongering, outright lies, are being deployed again. But we are also pushing back.
Juneteenth is not just about delayed freedom. It’s about the power of truth and the courage of people who, once they learned it, moved toward liberation. That spirit is still alive today, in the protestors, in the organizers, in the communities refusing to be silenced.
We remember Juneteenth not just to look back, but to keep going. To resist the lies. To fight for policies that heal instead of harm. To finish the course.
Because freedom delayed is still worth fighting for.
Toward justice.
