Dear Progressive Reader,
Today is Juneteenth. On this day, 156 years ago, on June 19, 1865, Union troops marched into Galveston, Texas and brought the news to 250,000 enslaved people that they were free. It marked the moment when, in an era devoid of modern electronic media, the word of President Lincoln’s 1862 Emancipation Proclamation (which went into effect January 1, 1863) finally reached the outer edge of the country. It would not be until December 1865, with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, that slavery would be fully abolished in the United States.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden created the first-ever federal holiday honoring Juneteenth (although the day has been celebrated in various ways in individual states and cities for decades). In December 1962, The Progressive produced a special issue recognizing the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. President John F. Kennedy was asked by editor Morris Rubin to write something for the issue. He sent a letter noting, “The Emancipation Proclamation was more than an individual act of wisdom and courage. It was a part-payment on our debt to the Founding Fathers of this republic — an installment in our national determination to realize for all our citizens the promise of equal rights and equal opportunities to which this nation is forever dedicated.” But Kennedy acknowledged this was only “part-payment,” merely an “installment” on a debt.
Kennedy’s letter went on to state, “I am sure, too, that The Progressive will remind us that the task is not complete—that no American can cease striving until every American, whatever his creed or color, enjoys the rights assigned to all Americans in the Declaration of Independence.” The special issue did indeed take on that task—featuring the voices of John Hope Franklin, A. Phillip Randolph, Lillian Smith, Martin Luther King Jr., and many others. The issue also included the first printing of James Baldwin’s “A Letter to My Nephew” (which would later be included in his book The Fire Next Time). This year, as Juneteenth finally becomes a national holiday, we at The Progressive recognize our responsibility to continue striving to address that unfulfilled task.
This week, on our website, Frye Gaillard reviews a book that looks at the U.S. Supreme Court’s history of enforcing racism, and Paul Buhle looks at a recent book that chronicles the success and strategies of teachers’ strikes. Plus Sarah Lahm reminds us that although the Minneapolis Star Tribune just won a Pulitzer for its coverage, it still needs to be held accountable for its poor coverage of racial issues in that city, and Mike Ervin writes about anti-vaxxers and empathy.
In international news, Jeff Abbott reports on the rise of authoritarianism in El Salvador; Stephen Zunes examines the accusation of the use of “human shields” in Gaza; and Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies analyze the recent NATO and G7 meetings in Europe.
Finally, Christopher Blackwell writes from inside a prison in Washington State about the failure of the grievance system; Robert Davis looks at the racist history of capital punishment; and Azadeh Shahshahani and Priyanka Bhatt write about an abusive detention center for immigrants in Georgia. “There is no way to reform institutions like CoreCivic or ICE,” they conclude. “Stewart must be shut down, ICE must be abolished, and the Biden Administration must immediately discontinue all contracts with private prisons.”
Keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.
Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher
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