photo: Emancipation Day celebration, June 19, 1900 held in “East Woods” on East 24th Street in Austin. Credit: Austin History Center.
It feels very poignant to be writing to you on Juneteenth, about a passage that contains the sentence, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Because today we remember and celebrate the official ending of chattel slavery in the United States. But there is also a grief in this remembrance, because those enslaved peoples in Galveston, Texas who finally gained their freedom on June 19th, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, are not the end of the story of slavery in this country. Not only was chattel slavery still in existence in other places after that day. Slavery also got reinvented.
Slavery was reinvented in segregation, in our prison systems, and in a society that still dehumanizes people based on the color of their skin. So while this is indeed a day of celebration, a day to celebrate freedom, it is also a day to name the injustices still at work in our society. It is a day to point towards a future in which there is truly no longer slave or free, a day in which all are free in every sphere of this world.
I think our passage for this Sunday is a bit of a paradox, in that it speaks of both a present reality, and future hope. But even more importantly, it is a call to action. We’ll dive in deeper on Sunday, exploring all this passage has for us, but in the meantime I invite you to take some actions today to learn more about Juneteenth. Below are a few resources among many.
- The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth
- Video about Juneteenth
- A Juneteenth Sermon
- Resources from the San Diego Public Library
- Sesame Street Song for Juneteenth
Looking forward to seeing you on Sunday as we explore this passage and wonder together what it means for us today!
Pastor Molly
