Albany — On Thursday, communities and organizations from across the country celebrated Juneteenth, commemorating the announcement of the end of slavery to enslaved African Americans in Texas in 1865. The notification came two years after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.
June 19th became a federal holiday in 2021, under the Biden Administration. Though, on Thursday, the day of the holiday, President Donald Trump questioned federal holidays, saying: “It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed,” Trump said on June 19. “The workers don’t want it either! Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year.”
This comes as the Trump Administration has rolled back DEI efforts, and tried to remove various acknowledgements for African Americans who have made an impact on American history, like Albany’s Henry Johnson, or even Jackie Robinson.
With this in mind, NAACP New York State Conference Executive Director Christopher Alexander says now is still the time for the black community to fight for full enfranchisement.
“Ignoring history is never a good way for either a Democracy or a society to move forward,” Alexander said. “You’re just doomed to repeat the same mistakes. And I think that this current administration has in Washington, to be specific, has done all that it could to erase history, even the removing of Jackie Robinson’s story from federal websites. You know, it’s sticking our head in the sand, but it doesn’t serve the purpose that, I think, that folks hope it does. Running from that history doesn’t empower anybody. Instead, it’s important that we embrace it, that we learn from it. My hope is that as the celebration of the Federal holiday continues, that people start to dive deeper into that story, because it’s also important just to go back historically with Juneteenth as a celebration, it wasn’t just that the lack of communication, technology, took some time to communicate. No, it was that folks in Texas specifically were holding on to slavery as a practice and as an institution. It wasn’t until the Generals who were fighting there surrendered that folks were able to actually celebrate what had been decided as the change in course of history with the Emancipation Proclamation, and then later with the 13th Amendment. So I just want to acknowledge that it’s also a moment and a reminder that we have to keep fighting and to keep moving forward, both as a society and as black people who are trying to build a fair, more equitable society.”
With that in mind, Alexander is encouraging those who celebrated Juneteenth to turn their celebration into action, including in the upcoming primary election on June 24th.
“Our message to all New Yorkers, to black New Yorkers, and to white ones, is that you celebrate Juneteenth in your participation in this process by ensuring that we can set a course forward that’s responding to the history that we have, the history that we’re celebrating today, but it’s also paying attention to the plan that we have to set for tomorrow,” Alexander says. “So I really am one of the mind that celebrating these types of moments, it’s important, when we talk about history, it’s important to be using that moment to connect people to the mission of the day, which, as I said, is participation. And then, of course, for our legislature here in New York, who had just concluded their session, finding ways to protect the right to vote for all New Yorkers, it’s incredibly important and fundamental to this day.”
Stay tuned for the full conversation with Christopher Alexander on Youtube.
