By now, readers likely know that Juneteenth commemorates the day upon which exuberant freedom celebrations officially reached Galveston, Texas. On June 19, 1865, General Granger brought news of emancipation — and, importantly, the power to enforce the liberatory law — to the hold-out state of Texas, the last jurisdiction in the 10 state Confederacy to surrender. Certainly, this was a change well worth celebrating. Certainly, the project of liberation — a project that requires our collective collaboration — is far from over.
Long celebrated in African American communities throughout the United States, Juneteenth became a national holiday in 2021. As a result, what was once a cherished celebration of freedom for the American descendants and kin of enslaved peoples is quickly turning into something of a random summer day off of work for many Americans, especially those with so-called white collar jobs. While we at EcoGather are heartily in favor of ample time for rest, relaxation, and celebration, we’re also a little uneasy about appropriating this holiday. To help resist that trend, we encourage our community (and especially the non-African-American folks in it) to use at least some of this holiday to learn more about the history and legacy of enslavement in America and explore the culture, wisdom, and joyful lifeways handed down by those who endured chattel slavery. Ways of being and belonging that are kept alive by both American descendants of the enslaved and other members of Black communities in and beyond the United States.
For non-African American folks in America (including Black folks from other parts of the diaspora), Juneteeth is also an excellent time to familiarize oneself with the practices and strategies of those who fought to abolish slavery. It offers a moment to consider how contemporary abolition movements might draw from the same toolbox in efforts to abolish other intolerable ideologies and institutions such as police and prisons, racial capitalism, and human trafficking. And while we’d all do well to nurture our abolitionist imaginations, it is also important to be attentive to truth-telling and to start taking reparational action. For that, we point you to the important new framework for Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation.
As an organization with strong land-based ethics and a partial focus on agriculture, EcoGather also uses Juneteenth as a moment to highlight the countless contributions that African Americans have made as cultivators. We must acknowledge the sweat and pain of unfree and forced heavy physical labor, of course. But we should also celebrate, cherish, and compensate the skill, ingenuity and eco-relational know-how that African farmers, scientists, and stewards made throughout post-colonial history across Turtle Island. We honor the African women who, in acts that were equally subversive and sacred, braided seeds into their hair before being forced aboard ships on the coast of their ancestral land. We honor early soil-health advocate George Washington Carver, CSA innovator Booker T. Whatley, civil rights activist and cooperative organizer Fannie Lou Hamer. Contemporary food movements owe so much to these visionary Black leaders of earlier eras. Black excellence in agriculture is also alive and thriving today in so many places. We’ll take a moment to marvel at just one example dear to us: Our partners at FrontLine Farming consistently demonstrate the transformative potential of land-based learning and living, the power of centering the leadership of Black and Brown agrarians, and the dignity that comes with the pursuit of food sovereignty. We are so fortunate to learn with and from them, to activate and thicken solidarities and friendships among our communities.
Finally, we often emphasize that EcoGather is focused on the pursuit of collective liberation from systems and ideologies of separation, extraction and oppression. Juneteenth is, of course, a perfect time to reinvigorate that commitment. But we sense that we might not have been sufficiently clear about what the phrase collective liberation really means to and requires of us. So, in the spirit of celebration through learning and as part of our ongoing practice of learning out loud and in public, this Juneteenth, Nicole will be doing some reflecting, writing, and resource gathering specifically on that topic. Stay tuned, share any resources you think we might benefit from having in our awareness, and keep us accountable to this commitment…
This post is full of links. It points toward ample resources for further learning on a range of topics relevant to Juneteenth and dimensions of racial justice and healing. We invite — and gently challenge — you to follow at least one and see what it moves in you. We wish everyone a Happy Juneteenth of celebration and/or celebratory inquiry.