Juneteenth and the Promise of Freedom

Tomorrow is Juneteenth — time to rejoice and reflect!!

Also known as Freedom Day or Jubilee Day, Juneteenth is one of the oldest continuously observed Black American holidays in the United States. In 2021, it was officially recognized as a federal holiday.

Juneteenth is a celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. The name combines the words “June” and “nineteenth,” marking June 19, 1865 — the day enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, finally learned they were free, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.

I joined Christian Simone, Texan, Masters of Social Work and member of our Healthcare Workers Solidarity cohort, to talk about the roots of Juneteenth, the parallels between the past and the present and what Black women can teach us about freedom dreaming.

Further reading:

• What Are Other Names for Juneteenth? The U.S. Is Betraying the Spirit of ‘Jubilee Day’ By Braxton Brewington

• The State of the Student Debt Crisis for Black Women data from Protect Borrowers

• “My Debt Was Canceled — and The World Just Opened Up” Gail Frances Gardner’s Story of Freedom After Student Debt. By Maddy Clifford

• Juneteenth’s DEI Ain’t Freedom: “Diversifying” an economy already obsessed with Blackness is futile. Ownership, not inclusion, is the key to our liberation. By Aaron Ross Coleman

Documentary:

Freedom Dreams: Black Women and the Student Debt Crisis

This important documentary profiles Black women educators and activists struggling under the weight of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, in student loan debt. The title is inspired by scholar and activist Robin D. G. Kelley’s eponymous book, and the film is narrated by former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, a longtime ally of the growing debt abolition movement.

As directors Erick Stoll and Astra Taylor and the film’s cast demonstrate, a lack of intergenerational wealth and persistent wage discrimination force women, and Black women in particular, to borrow at disproportionate rates and struggle with repayment. Reactionary policy decisions have transformed education, long trumpeted as a ladder of upward mobility, into a debt trap.

Call to Action:

Join Debt Collective — the nation's first union of debtors — and fight back against Trump's attacks on student millions of debtors by calling for a pause on federal student loan payments!!