© iHumnoi/ Adobe Stock
© iHumnoi/ Adobe Stock
Today we recognize the 159th anniversary of Juneteenth and celebrate the liberation of enslaved African Americans from chattel slavery in the United States. While the Emancipation Proclamation declared enslaved Black people in the Confederate states to be legally free at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 1863, we know this did not immediately lead to the freedom of all enslaved people in the United States. Juneteenth, in particular, was the day in 1865 when military forces arrived to finally enforce the Emancipation Proclamation for the 250,000 still enslaved African Americans in Texas.
This day is a reminder of our country’s complicated history and legacy of violence against Black people. It is a call for us to recognize that liberation, justice, and progress are not automatic or simple, and that for Black Americans the struggle for true freedom is an ongoing process. That Juneteenth has only been recognized as a federal holiday since 2021 is a reflection of this hard truth. In the PC(USA), we are also called to recognize the ways white Christians and our own denomination have been and are complicit in the ongoing oppression of Black people and the perpetuation of white supremacy.
These are hard, but important, realities with which to contend. Yet, we are called to be people of truth. But we are also called to be people of hope. And Juneteenth reminds us, too, that change can and does come, with effort, commitment, resilience, and faith. So let us take this day to recommit ourselves, as Presbyterians, as Christians, and as Americans, to the ongoing work of liberation, and strive onward toward a world that truly and fully reflects Christ’s kin-dom, where love and justice are uncontested and absolute.
Rev. Bronwen Boswell
Acting Stated Clerk of the General Assembly
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)