Hello Somebody!

Today — Juneteenth — is a day to celebrate the recognition of the emancipation of Black Americans. It’s also a chance to reflect on this moment of independence and freedom, as well as what it took for us to get here.

Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1862, it wasn’t until more than two years later, on June 19, 1865, that the word of freedom reached the remaining enslaved people in Galveston, Texas.

So today, I’m remembering and honoring the people who fought so hard for every scrap of progress along the way, as well as the work still to do. We must recognize and honor the work of folks like Mother Opal Lee, who fought for decades to make Juneteenth a national holiday.

And as the nation embraces Juneteenth as an official federal holiday, we cannot be content with just a mark on the calendar, but we must continue to fight for policies that will atone for the racial, social, environmental, political, and economic injustices that disproportionally impact the Black community as a result of Slavery.

That means:

• closing the health disparity gaps by passing Medicare for All
• closing racial wealth gaps by cancelling student debt
• closing the education gap by making all public colleges and universities free; and
• passing reparations for the American Descendants of Slaves.

Let us mark the 156th year with more progress toward freedom than ever before.

With these hands,

Nina Turner