Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Black Americans were officially freed, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. It’s a day of jubilation and grief, a celebration of delayed liberation that still echoes today in the lives of those who remain caged.
More than 160 years later, millions of people, disproportionately Black and Brown, are still waiting to be free.
And not just free from bars and razor wire, but from surveillance, exclusion, and the systems that seek to erase them.
A Brief Timeline of Freedom Deferred
1863 – Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln declares all enslaved people in Confederate states “forever free.” But enforcement relies on Union troops, and liberation is staggered and partial.
1865 – Juneteenth
June 19. Union soldiers arrive in Galveston, Texas, two and a half years later, to enforce the Proclamation. Freedom finally reaches the last enslaved Americans.
1877 – End of Reconstruction
Federal troops are withdrawn. Southern states rapidly enact Jim Crow laws, gutting Black political and economic gains.
1896 – Plessy v. Ferguson
The Supreme Court upholds segregation under the doctrine of “separate but equal,” legalizing apartheid for nearly 60 more years.
1964 – Civil Rights Act
Outlaws segregation and discrimination, a major victory of the Civil Rights Movement, though resistance remains fierce.
1994 – Federal Crime Bill
Mass incarceration explodes. Mandatory minimums, three-strikes laws, and prison construction surge, disproportionately targeting Black communities.
Today
Over 1 million Black Americans are under carceral control – in prison, on probation, on parole.
Slavery’s exception clause remains in the 13th Amendment.
The promise of freedom? Still unfinished.
Who Still Waits to Be Free?
This week we revived our blog series: Letters From Prison.
The first entry was from Bradley, writing us from a federal prison in Colorado. In his letter, he talks about one of the many humiliations people endure behind bars.
Bradley’s voice, and the voices of so many others, are the reason we do this work.
Every week, we’ll share more letters from people in prison. More truth-telling. More messages of delayed freedom.
✊🏾 On Juneteenth and Every Day
“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” — Fannie Lou Hamer
This Juneteenth, we honor not just this history, but the people still trapped by its legacy.
We listen to the ones still waiting.
We lift their voices.
And we keep pushing.
Image by khema sok from Pixabay.
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