Happy Juneteenth, fellow Americans!
I do love a holiday, and I’ve written about this one before: Our Newest Federal Holiday.
I grew up in a predominantly white region on the East Coast, and Juneteenth wasn’t part of my experience. I’m happy to celebrate it now.
Wondering how? Check out this introduction: The beginner’s guide to celebrating Juneteenth
And this is a rerun from the excellent Now I Know, but it’s just as good the second time around.
Freed But Not Free
“We have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years and Mandy [his wife] twenty years. At $25 a month for me, and $2 a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to $11,680.” (In today’s dollars, that’s about $175,000.)
Would you like to know more?
Juneteenth | National Museum of African American History and Culture
“If you’re going to hold someone down you’re going to have to hold on by the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own repression.”
— Toni Morrison
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