MY REFLECTIONS
By Tawanna A. Black - Founder and Chief Executive Officer
History matters.
On June 19, 1865, almost three years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation ending legalized slavery and two months after the Civil War ended, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas with news that in fact all enslaved people of African descent should be made free. The following year, June 19 was celebrated as Freedom Day, and Texas made the day a state holiday in 1979.
While America needed nearly three years to reconcile itself with the ruling of the Emancipation Proclamation, it took over 100 years to reconcile itself with the experience of that truth: life, liberty, freedom, and justice for all people.
In the past year, many Americans have had an awakening and witnessed for the first time, in the words of W.E.B. Dubois, “…a system [which] cannot fail those it was never meant to protect.”
The justice, economic, education, workforce, health, and housing systems that criminalize and restrict opportunity from Black and Brown people are not broken. They were designed to produce the results they are producing. They will continue to produce unequal benefits for some, and unequal harm for others, until they are dismantled and new racially inclusive, equitable systems are built.
As a nation, state, and community, we have only begun the work of reckoning with the depths of racism that each of us must work daily to undo inside our organizations, communities, neighborhoods, and families if justice and freedom are to truly be realized.
While many businesses and agencies have made Juneteenth a holiday for the second year in a row, and Congress and President Biden have made Juneteenth a federal holiday, many African Americans, in particular American Descendants of Slavery, are asking how we ensure this new awakening becomes more than a day off from work.
Closed offices and observances are important, perhaps even necessary, but not sufficient. Freedom fighters of yesterday, today, and tomorrow stand in solidarity in relentless pursuit of racial equity and justice.
We march, lobby, work, advocate, and organize for demonstrated acts of anti-racism, inclusion, and belonging in classrooms, workplaces, and communal spaces that can be measured in accountability, mobility, opportunity, and power.
My call to action this Juneteenth:
Join the daily fight for liberation in every sector, in every zip code, and in every place where privilege is used to withhold freedom, life, justice, and equity.
Spend time in reflection and share your journey with others.
Visit the Center’s website where we feature personal essays by partners and staff about their experiences reckoning with racism over the past year.
History does matter. It will show that we fought for freedom, we fought for liberation, and we reckoned to rise, together.
ABOUT THE REFLECTIONS CAMPAIGN
After a year of reckoning with the ravages of racism in our schools, businesses, neighborhoods, and halls of justice, we see clearly that racism is deeply woven into every fiber of our society and that the consequences have touched each person in America. We see the depths of division and racism and the imperative to work in new ways to address very old problems.
The Center for Economic Inclusion invited leaders at all levels and from across sectors to share their reflections of the past year; several members of the Center’s staff have also participated. We wanted to learn how they have reckoned with racism over the past year; what is different in the places where they live, work, and play; what they think the the future holds; and what they think it will take to reimagine and build an economy that truly works for everyone.
We thank the leaders who answered our call to participate in this campaign. All week long, we will share their powerful reflections, in their own words.
> To engage with our entire Reckoning to Rise Together series, click here.