An unfinished freedom: Juneteenth and the ongoing struggle for equity
Even though liberation was secured in law more than a century ago, social justice leaders say the fight for equity and civil rights remains very much alive today. They say Black Americans continue to confront many of the same structural barriers—now playing out through policy, courts and political decisions—that have shaped the long aftermath of emancipation. The post An unfinished freedom: Juneteenth and the ongoing struggle for equity appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.
Black News 
By Megan Sayles
AFRO Staff Writer
msayles@afro.com
It’s been almost 161 years since some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 to declare freedom for more than 250,000 enslaved people in the state. The announcement came more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, which decreed that “all persons held as slaves” in rebellious confederate states were free and authorized African Americans to enlist in the U.S. military.
Even though liberation was secured in law more than a century ago, those at the forefront of civil rights say Black Americans are still fighting battles over equity, justice and access today.
“Black folks in America are still deserving and in need of full participation and access to all of the rights of this country— every element and amendment of the United States Constitution,” said Dana Vickers Shelley, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ALCU) of Maryland. “We’re still working toward that.”
With celebrations for America’s 250th birthday on the horizon, Shelley said she can’t help but feel conflicted. To her, it seems Black Americans have been stuck in a recurring cycle of progress followed by systemic reversals.
Soon after what would become known as the first Juneteenth, the U.S. entered Reconstruction, an era between 1864 and 1877 marked by hope and possibility. Over that time period, African-American men voted, held public office and began to develop political influence for the first time in the country’s history. But the rise of self-determination for Black Americans came with fierce backlash from White Southern leaders who sought to undermine each hard-won gain.
From the late 1870s up until the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-1960s, Jim Crow ushered in the era of “separate but equal,” with state-sanctioned segregation, racial terror, economic oppression and voter disenfranchisement. Decades after the passage of landmark legislation, like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Black Americans still find themselves and their rights at the whim of political actors who seek to erode those protections.
“What irony is it that this 250th anniversary comes at a time when so many inalienable rights are being taken away by our country’s government?” said Shelley. “This current federal administration is mocking even the founding documents of this country.”
In just the last year, the 47th president has issued executive orders to eliminate diversity, inclusion and equity in the federal government, end birthright citizenship, weaken civil rights protections tied to unequal outcomes and censor Black history. The U.S. Supreme Court has also contributed to these rollbacks over time—striking down affirmative action and diminishing section protections in the Voting Rights Act.
Shaylyn Cochran, deputy executive director at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee), admitted she feels grieved when thinking about the state of the country for Black Americans. Her organization was founded in 1963 at the behest of former President John F. Kennedy, who put out a call to action for private attorneys to assist the federal government in ensuring Black Americans’ civil rights were realized and to defend against racial discrimination.
Most concerning to Cochran has been the Supreme Court’s recent Louisiana v. Callais, which significantly narrowed key provisions of the Voting Rights Act by making it more difficult to challenge racially discriminatory electoral maps.
“The Supreme Court basically decimated the last vestige we have of probably the most consequential civil rights statute in our country, the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” said Cochran. “It is in the aftermath of that that we are seeing majority Black districts across this country written out with new district lines that are being passed by legislatures. To say that voting rights are in crisis right now in our country would be an understatement.”
Still, organizations, like the ACLU of Maryland and the Lawyers’ Committee, have held firm on the front lines of pursuing racial equity and justice, filing lawsuits and advocating for policies to combat voter suppression and defend equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives, confront housing discrimination and advance criminal justice reform.
Both Shelley and Cochran have also been able to hold onto glimmers of hope amid the fraught political and social climate. For Shelley, it’s the hundreds of activists and community leaders the ACLU of Maryland works alongside every day to preserve constitutional and civil rights and dismantle systemic oppression.
For Cochran, it’s the conviction that even in periods of crisis, people come together in ways that can strengthen the push toward justice.
“There are good things. There are coalitions, relationships, organizations and even new laws that are going to emerge from this period of crisis,” said Cochran. “If the past is prologue, that has been the American story. When things are the hardest and look the bleakest, we often turn to each other and that often brings a spirit of creativity and audacity that has propelled us forward—even in the midst of trying times.”
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