Bruce Tyler
Coordinator of Systemic Inequities
As a network of Latin American and Caribbean immigrant-led and serving organizations, Alianza Americas recognizes Juneteenth as an important moment in the struggle for freedom for enslaved persons in the Americas. Let us bear in mind that it was but one in a series of similar moments and that the underlying message of Juneteenth remains as important today as it was in 1865. That message is: None of us are free until all are free.
Many people recognize Juneteenth as the day when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, “finally learned” that the Emancipation Proclamation had set them free over two years earlier. While there is truth to that version, it tells only part of the story, and what it obscures is as important as what it reveals.
The U.S. Civil War and the emancipation that eventually emerged from it were only one moment in a long struggle for freedom and equality for black people throughout the Americas. It began long before and continues long afterward. Enslaved folks never stopped trying to attain freedom. A major victory had been reached years earlier in January 1804, when the enslaved people of the Caribbean nation of Haiti won a bloody struggle against their French colonizers and enslavers.
A set of new ideas emerging in the 1700s can be illustrated in the 1789 French Revolution, with its calls for “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” reverberating through the streets of Paris a few years earlier in 1789. Before that, on July 4, 1776, in the War for Independence which the 13 colonies in North America fought and eventually won against England, made its solemn Declaration of Independence that “all men (sic) are created equal, and they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights … that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Beginning in 1791, an organized revolt against the French led to the formation of the first Black-run republic in the hemisphere, leading a nation of newly freed Black persons. Haiti then went on to play an important role in supporting movements for freedom and abolition around the Americas.
Unlike in Haiti, Black people in the newly formed United States of America would continue to wait for hope of any freedom. While there were innumerable revolts and rebellions large and small, they were denied even the most basic rights that the United States promised to its citizens. This led Frederick Douglass (1818–1895), who escaped from slavery in Maryland and went on to become one of the greatest fighters for Black liberation in American history to declare, in his speech at an 1852 Independence Day celebration:
The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. …This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.
…
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.
On September 22, 1862 US President Abraham Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, promising that on January 1, 1863, all slaves in any territory still in rebellion against the Union would be emancipated and thereafter free.
When the Emancipation Proclamation became effective, it could not be easily enforced because the Civil War was still in full swing. This changed when, on April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his troops to the Union, being only the first of a number of Confederate Generals to surrender over the coming months, making it feasible to broadly enforce the Emancipation Proclamation.
Nevertheless, resistance remained strong among many slaveholders and other Confederates, especially in more distant places such as Texas. Therefore, on June 19, 1865, General Gordan Granger of the Union Army issued Order #3. In doing so, not only did he instruct Texans that slaves were to be considered free people, but that “The Freedmen are advised to remain at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.” (emphasis added)
Remember, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery nation-wide! This did not happen until the December 6, 1865 ratification of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution.
And even after the abolition of slavery, the fight against white supremacy became more urgent than ever, as black folks throughout the nation fought against the terrorism and oppression that it represented. That fight continues until this day as African Americans continue to overcome the legacy of more than a century of segregation and exclusion even after the formal end of slavery. One of the many glaring results of these policies is that the median net worth (wealth) for White families in America today is over six times greater than that of Black families.
Latin America and the Caribbean also grapple with histories of slavery, colonialism, and racial injustice. The shared struggle for liberation unites us, emphasizing our collective fight against systemic racism and inequality. In countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, the legacies of slavery persist in the form of economic disparities, social marginalization, and enduring racial prejudice. There is still much work to do to dismantle white supremacy and racism, including in our countries of origin and Latino communities in the U.S., by addressing colorism and discrimination within these societies.
Recognizing Juneteenth as part of a broader narrative of liberation underscores the importance of solidarity in dismantling racism and building a more equitable future for all.
