Until All Are Free, The Work Is Not Done

They didn’t tell my people that they were free, right away. Even after the ink dried on the Emancipation Proclamation, they didn't tell them. Not even after the blood spilled and bodies piled in the name of a nation supposedly united under liberty and justice were they told.

Instead, the power-brokers waited and held freedom hostage behind borders of greed, ego, and entitlement. And on June 19, 1865 - two and a half years later - when word finally reached the shores of Galveston, Texas, it wasn’t because the enslaved had been seen as human. It was because their labor was no longer useful, their bondage no longer profitable, and their bodies no longer essential to the overall goal.

The story of Juneteenth is that of a freedom which was announced late, thus postponing justice, and forcing liberation to find its own breath after being suffocated for centuries.

Here we are in 2025 watching an administration strip away aid to vulnerable nations, criminalize immigrants, roll back civil rights protections and of course using the Bible as a prop while ignoring its call to “let the oppressed go free” (Isaiah 58:6). In this nation that once declared independence while enslaving people, history is resisting correction.

Juneteenth is a mirror, a reckoning, a call to remembrance and a call to arms - Dear God, not with weapons of war -  but with the tools of protest, truth-telling, coalition-building, and spiritual resilience.

It is not time to get distracted by the red velvet cake and the flags waving in the sun. Talk about how many of our schools barely teach this history, or how many employers don’t give the day off unless it’s convenient. Talk about how some of the same people who posted “Happy Juneteenth” last year are the ones now cheering policy that destroys the very communities it claims to celebrate. Talk about the church-people who grin up in your face, but keep their covert jabbing-tool handy. 

Talk about real freedom - not the sanitized version wrapped in fireworks and funnel cakes - but the kind that offends the sensibilities of the bigots. Don't forget the freedom that has always had to claw its way past those who prefer power over people. Talk about it because we are still not truly free.

We are not free while Black maternal death rates remain sky-high; while voting rights are gutted; while our children go missing and the news says nothing; while people are deported back to death; while housing remains unaffordable, and while the arc of justice bends under the weight of those determined to break it.

And yet with a steady beat, we press on. We still dance, worship, and build. We still name our babies “Hope” and “Freedom” and “Malik,” which means king. We still reinvent ourselves and call ourselves "Bonquiqui" with our full chests.

Juneteenth, therefore, is a declaration from the soul: We will not forget. We will not be silent. We will not stop until justice is not delayed or denied, but delivered.

So go ahead. Fire up the grill. Wear the kente. Sip the hibiscus tea. (Spike it if you want to), and dance the hell out of those trauma-filled bones. 

But while you do, remember that celebrating Juneteenth without confronting the systemic cruelty that exists is empty. And commemorating Juneteenth means committing to finish what was started - until every child knows they are loved, every family can live without fear, and until every system built on exploitation is dismantled.

Do it, until all of us are truly free.

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