Juneteenth commemorates the end of the evil of slavery in the U.S. The emancipation of African Americans certainly did not end racism, oppression, or injustice, but it is fitting that we mark the demise of that “peculiar”, horrible institution.
Celebrating the federal holiday this week prompted me, a white person, to reflect on what the liberation of enslaved people meant to this country and, by extension, to all of us. I think of the roll call of Americans who have shaped the U.S. and the world, whose light would not have shone as it did without emancipation.
Booker T. Washington. Marcus Garvey. W.E.B. Du Bois. George Washington Carver. Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Dorothy Vaughan. Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Zora Neale Hurston. Langston Hughes. Maya Angelou. Toni Morrison. Alex Haley. James Baldwin. Audre Lorde. bell hooks. Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Scott Joplin. Louis Armstrong. Billie Holiday. Ella Fitzgerald. Marian Anderson. Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Chuck Berry. Mahalia Jackson. Aretha Franklin. Nina Simone. Michael Jackson. Grandmaster Flash. (Basically, we wouldn’t have Dixieland, Ragtime, Blues, Gospel, Jazz, Soul, Rock-and-Roll, or Hip-hop without the musical genius of African Americans.)
Jesse Owens. Jackie Robinson. Arthur Ashe. Hank Aaron. Willie Mays. Derek Jeter. Walter Payton. Jerry Rice. Patrick Mahomes. Tiger Woods. Wilt Chamberlain. Michael Jordan. LeBron James. Wilma Rudolph. Althea Gibson. Florence Griffith Joyner. Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Simone Biles. Serena Williams.
Hattie McDaniel. Sidney Poitier. Ruby Dee. Morgan Freeman. Cicely Tyson. Viola Davis. James Earl Jones. Ava DuVernay.
Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. Congressman John Lewis. Ambassador Andrew Young. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. President Barack Obama.
Malcom X. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This list omits more influential people than it includes. We could add hundreds of other names.
But I am making this attempt, insufficient as it is, to remind myself- and maybe you- of the profound influence on this country effected by people whose ancestors were brought here in chains. It’s a reminder that the liberation of one group within our society nurtures the flowering of everyone in our society. The more opportunities exist for people’s brilliance to shine and their spirit to be shared, the greater we all become as a nation, and as humankind.
That sentiment is obvious, but seems vastly ignored in this divisive era. Dr. King’s words remain prophetic: “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.”
The end of an institution that should never have existed, the unspeakable sin of slavery, is indeed a reason to celebrate. It’s also a reason to recognize how much more needs to be done (Yo, white folks: I’m talking to you and me) to eradicate all its remnants, so that everyone’s light can shine.
May Juneteenth always remind us that the liberation of any of us is emancipation for all of us.