Juneteenth Holiday 2024–Celebrating African American Freedom While Still Shackled

By Stephanie WilliamsBlack Voice News Photos: Black Voice NewsWikimedia Commons June 19, 1865, the day the enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom, is now a national holiday.  Today, the Juneteenth holiday is called by many names including Black Independence Day, Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, Juneteenth Independence Day, Juneteenth National Independence Day, to name a few. Independence! Emancipation! Jubilee! Are conjure  exciting, uplifting, celebratory feelings. For someone like me, part of only the third generation in my family to be born “free,”  I can only imagine what it felt like for my ancestors  to be unshackled–free to do what they wanted  to do. Yes, Black bodies are physically unshackled and no one can argue there has been progress for Blacks in many areas since June 19, 1863. But, after all these years, Blacks remain socially and economically shackled by a nation bound to the dying gasps of white supremacy and dripping racism. By almost any measure, Blacks in America are shackled. As Webster defines the term, “to be shackled is to [be] deprived of freedom of action by means of restrictions or handicaps.” We see it in the persistent data–whether it is related to homelessness,  maternal mortality, infant...