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What Is Juneteenth?

What Is Juneteenth? published on Purchase

 

“Struggle is a never ending process.

Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.”

– Coretta Scott King

This week’s comic is more an illustrated history lesson, so I will keep my comments brief.  Juneteenth commemorates the date of June 19, 1865, when the last slaves in the Confederacy received the news that they were emancipated.  While it is celebrated as a sort of Black Independence Day, it is also a reminder that freedom does not come quickly or without great struggle.  The real heroes of Juneteenth are those who continued to struggle to lesson the opportunity gaps that kept formerly enslaved black men and women under white control.  I hope to draw attention to Rev. Jack Yates and Rev. Elias Dibble who organized the black community and funds to create safe public spaces for blacks to gather and receive education.

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