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Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman of color to hold the office, and Karen Bass, the first woman of color to serve as mayor of Los Angeles, shake hands after the administration of the Oath of Office to Bsss on Dec. 11, 2022 in Los Angeles. (David McNew / Getty Images)

BY LAURA CARNS | Even now, 158 years after the first Juneteenth, our elected leaders remain overwhelmingly white and male. Even as white women saw marginal gains in political representation, progress for Black women has been infuriatingly slow.

Black women candidates for elected office must fight bias on multiple fronts, not just at the ballot box, but all along the way to get there. As intersectional feminists, we have a responsibility to dismantle the barriers to a truly representative democracy.

(Click here to read more) 

A Juneteenth Block Party at on June 19, 2021, in West Hollywood, California. (Emma McIntyre / Getty Images)

BY RÉGINE JEAN-CHARLES | What does Juneteenth mean to me, to you, to us today? Long before corporate decisions to recognize Juneteenth, Black people in this country were joyfully and jubilantly celebrating this day in our own way.

As a feminist scholar, I marvel at Black women’s pivotal role in Juneteenth celebrations. It reminds me that Black women have always been architects of freedom.

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Juneteenth Emancipation Day Celebration in Texas on June 19, 1900. (Austin History Center, Austin Public Library / Creative Commons)

BY BRITTNEY COOPER | “We are grateful for Texas, for Galveston—but what happened in Texas didn’t only happen there. Freedom was eventual but it was not an event. It was episodic, but not confined to one episode. Juneteenth is for everybody Black. It is but the enduring Black freedom celebration in a range of Emancipation Day celebrations that Black people have used to mark belated freedom.”

(Click here to read more) 

Tune in for a new episode of Ms. magazine's podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin on

Apple Podcasts + Spotify.

In this episode, Dr. Goodwin is joined by Ann Grundy to celebrate Juneteenth—which comes at a fraught moment in U.S. history. In 2023, Juneteenth comes with vestiges of the past, as book bans targeting queer, Black and Indigenous authors sweep the nation. Dr. Goodwin and Grundy remind us that these bans aren’t just attacks on critical race theory or women’s studies. They’re attacks on democracy and the First Amendment itself.

We hope you'll listen, subscribe, rate and review today!

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