Dear John,
It’s sad and ironic that today, just two years after President Biden declared Juneteenth a federal holiday, powerful political forces are working diligently to ensure that children never learn about Juneteenth in school. Efforts to ban books present a narrow, whitewashed version of America’s history and conspire to perpetuate the racist systems that created today’s starkly inequitable conditions. That same dishonesty prevents all students, especially Black and Brown students, from even acquiring the vocabulary to critique those systems.
That’s why on this Juneteenth, we are proud to celebrate the CDF Freedom Schools® program. To cap our largest-ever CDF Freedom Schools training just two weeks ago, our graduation speaker, author Derecka Purnell, declared this group of CDF Servant Leader Interns the “most important class ever” because of the present challenges to teaching the truth. More than just enriching reading skills, CDF Freedom Schools enrich the minds of young scholars with book characters who look like them, with themes and stories that resonate with them, and with history that reflects the Black freedom struggle and other fights for justice. In the spirit of the Freedom Summer of 1964, CDF Freedom Schools inspire movement toward a more just America by first casting light on the structural injustice our scholars and their families endure, then activating their power to make change.
In his best-selling book How the Word Is Passed, journalist Clint Smith offers a powerful reflection on his visit to a Juneteenth commemoration led by Scholars from the Nia Cultural Center CDF Freedom School in Galveston, TX. Please take a few minutes today to read Clint’s reflection and consider the formative effect of children’s interaction with their true history—and what could be the unfortunate impact of that history’s absence.
Juneteenth marks one crucial point in time, but also reminds us to sustain the liberation efforts that made the events of June 19, 1865 possible. CDF embraces that charge today and everyday as we build community with you so young people grow up with dignity, hope, and joy.
