Have you Heard? It’s Time to Celebrate Juneteenth!

On Thursday, June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed a bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday! This acknowledgement by the federal government is a Remarkable accomplishment! This recognition is only the beginning, but we must pause to honor each step on the journey. We have made significant progress since the words of Dr. King who stated, “If the cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. Because the goal of America is freedom, abused and scorned tho’ we may be, our destiny is tied up with America’s destiny.” I am reminded of Ecclesiastes 9:11, I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise, or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.

From all of my conversations, I was not alone in being caught off guard with the passage of the bill by the U.S. Senate (which was unanimous), then by the U.S. House of Representatives and signed into law by our President. I believe we had a “perfect storm” of time and chance that included a powerful social justice movement, an international cry that Black Lives Matter, and in the words of Fannie Lou Hamer, years of “being sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

I applaud the Biden Administration for taking this bold action! According to President Biden, “I said a few weeks ago, marking the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, great nations don’t ignore their most painful moments. They don’t ignore those moments in the past. They embrace them. Great nations don’t walk away. We come to terms with the mistakes we made. In remembering those moments, we begin to heal and grow stronger. The truth is, it’s simply not enough just to commemorate Juneteenth, after all the emancipation of slave black Americans didn’t mark the end of America’s work to deliver on the promise of equality; it only marked the beginning. To honor the true meaning of Juneteenth, we have to continue toward that promise because we’ve not gotten there yet.”

President Joe Biden

June 17, 2021

As we celebrated our first Juneteenth holiday, whether you paused for a moment of prayer, reflections, cooked, entertained guest, or completed a service project, we must continue to share the stories of our past and celebrate the major accomplishments, long sufferings, sacrifices, and deaths of too many of our people. Time and chance have changed the narrative for our nation, and it can also change the circumstances impacting you and me. But until we have reform that includes the passage of the George Floyd Police Reform Bill, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, as well as the accomplishment of a living wage for all Americans, we can not rest!

What a Remarkable Moment in our History!

Dr. ReShone