On Juneteenth, it’s our responsibility to celebrate Black achievement and honor the reality of Black struggle

As we commemorate Juneteenth — the annual celebration of Black freedom in America — I am awestruck when I contemplate our ongoing journey. On one hand, African Americans are seemingly locked in a permanent struggle as we seek to grab hold of the rights our country has promised. On the other hand, we’ve experienced the kind of progress that is only achieved when determination is connected to miracles. Last week alone, in Philadelphia, America’s birthplace, I spoke with Cherelle L. Parker, a Black woman, and the city’s first female mayor. I also spoke with Kevin J. Bethel, the city’s Black police commissioner. And as I look back at my votes for the first Black president, Barack Obama, and my various interviews with Kamala Harris, America’s first Black female vice president, I am keenly aware that I’ve had a front-row seat to my people’s meteoric rise. It is a rise that is even more astounding when one considers what we’ve overcome to get here. We are reminded of that journey on Juneteenth — the federal holiday that celebrates the June day in 1865 when Union troops marched into Galveston, Texas, and told the last of the enslaved that they were free....