Dear John,

Today we celebrate Juneteenth—a day commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, when news of the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War finally reached enslaved persons living in Texas, nearly three years after President Lincoln’s proclamation.

This week, after passing in both houses of Congress, President Biden signed a bill declaring Juneteenth a federal holiday (the first new federal holiday in decades). To commemorate Juneteenth, Ms. contributor Janell Hobson interviews three scholars of slavery studies and Black women’s histories. Dr. Hobson writes, “At a time when discussions about the legacy of slavery—from the 1619 Project to ‘slavery movies’—have become politically and culturally fraught, there is an increasing number of scholars doing research about the slave past and doing so from Black feminist perspectives.” I highly encourage you to read and engage with these critically important perspectives.

And you can celebrate Juneteenth with the Pointer Sisters! Check out the newest Ms. podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin – “I’m So Excited…Celebrating Juneteenth with the Pointer Sisters (with Anita Pointer and Fritz Pointer)”.

Also on MsMagazine.com this week, Jennifer Weiss-Wolf lays out the many ways in which the filibuster is holding up democracy and preventing progress on women’s and civil rights. As the battle to end this undemocratic Senate rule ramps up, it has become increasingly clear that a number of widely-popular, desperately-needed pieces of legislation—including the Equal Rights Amendment, the For the People Act, and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, among others—currently are blocked by a Republican minority, who are preventing the will of the American people from becoming law.

I would be remiss not to mention the Supreme Court rulings that came down late this week. In the most recent in a long line of partisan challenges to the Affordable Care Act, the Court ruled to uphold the ACA—preserving critically important women’s health care, including free access to birth control, mammograms, and other services. Read more about the battle for women’s health care from Ms. contributing editor Carrie Baker and Ms. digital editor Roxy Szal. 

Finally, we’re excited to give our Weekly Digest readers a sneak peek into the new summer issue of Ms. magazine! Click here to see our brand new cover—and if you are not already a member of the Ms. community, join to get the new issue delivered straight to your mailbox.

So, stay tuned!

For equality,

Kathy Spillar
Executive Editor