Dear friends,
Three years ago, I wrote a post to explain the history of Juneteenth, which was still unfamiliar to most Americans. I love that the holiday is now familiar to many more people and I also lament that — like many official holidays — it is vulnerable to being bleached of its origins and meaning.
To be sure, Juneteenth is a joyous holiday. It is also bittersweet: it celebrates overdue liberation and remembers the people who suffered and died while enslaved. It is a remarkable tribute to the extraordinary resilience that has prevented a society founded on white supremacy from squashing Black excellence.
But the US continues to keep good people down and throw up obstacles in the way of full participation and full citizenship of Black people.
The explosion of protest and organizing that followed the murder of George Floyd awakened Americans to the deep connections between slavery and policing and to the rot at the core of our criminal ‘justice’ system.
Attorney General Merrick Garland stated the findings plainly:
“We found that MPD in the city of Minneapolis engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force, unlawfully discriminating against Black and Native American people in enforcement activities, violating the rights of people engaged in protected speech and discriminating against people with behavioral disabilities…when responding to them in crisis.”
Minneapolis Police also routinely ignored health complaints of people in custody, readily dismissing breathing difficulties and other serious dangers. They made degrading and overtly racist remarks even as they complained to investigators about being perceived as racist.
The report also described slow-walked investigations of police misconduct and training of new officers that demonstrated a disregard for civil rights of members of the public.
We have work to do.
New York lawmakers passed a bill to create a commission to consider reparations to address the enduring effects of slavery. California was the first state to create a reparations task force, and they
recommended a formal apology from the state on its legacy of racism and discriminatory policies and the creation of an agency to provide a wide range of services for Black residents.
Examining our history and identifying how best to go forward to repair the damage of structural racism, violent policing, and mass incarceration is necessary work.
The National African American Reparations Commission has a 10-point plan for reparations. It’s a good read. In 2021, I signed on for a monthly reparations contribution. I stopped noticing after a while — just as we often do with white privilege — and recently realized that the credit card I’d done it on had expired. Today’s the day to re-up. Even a small amount is significant.
Make your reparations contribution.
The Clean Slate bill passed the NYS legislature. My senator, Zellnor Myrie, was the sponsor of this important law, which will enable folks who have been incarcerated to successfully rejoin their communities after a waiting period that will seal their criminal records.
Tell Hochul to sign the Clean Slate bill and to create a commission to examine the state’s role in perpetuating slavery and address persistent disparities experienced by Black New Yorkers today.
Zellnor Myrie, emailed to say that another bill he sponsored, which would enact a ban on forced labor in our prisons in jails, passed the Senate. If the Assembly takes action, we could formally end slavery in New York once and for all.
This is the issue explored so powerfully in Ava DuVernay’s powerful 2016 documentary, 13th.
Tell your Assembly Member and Speaker Heastie that you support a ban on forced labor in prisons!
There is a package of bills before the New York City Council to help repair the harms of slavery.
One bill, Intro 1085, would require the city Public Design Commission to either remove or provide historical context on a plaque to any public art on city property
that depicts people who “owned enslaved persons or directly benefited economically from slavery, or who participated in systemic crimes against indigenous peoples or other crimes against humanity.”
Sandy Nurse, the lead sponsor of the bill explains the importance of the bill:
“We spend a lot of time looking at the people who adorn the walls of this institution that we are now a part of. It’s this surreal kind of experience where we are looking at these figures that loom above us or are scattered throughout public space, who represent these deep wounds of racism and brutality.”
Nurse said the intention behind the bill is to create an opportunity for the city to reconcile with its history.
A happy aside, before I return to the package of bills before the city council, is that a US Army base in Louisiana, formerly named after Confederate Commander Polk, was renamed to honor Sergeant Henry Johnson, a World War I Medal of Honor recipient who served in the all-Black 369th U.S Infantry Regiment.
A second bill before the city council, Intro 1073, would require the creation of a public “truth, healing, and reconciliation process,” culminating in published recommendations from the Commission on Racial Equity to recommend policy changes to prevent continued harm.
A third bill, Intro. 1082, would
The commitment to address structural racism, over-policing, and mass incarceration is a commitment to young people. Everyone is harmed by failures of our systems and no one is more vulnerable than young people who have grown up in impoverished communities.
The Administration of Children’s Services runs the detention centers and has confirmed that classrooms have been repurposed as holding cells in order to manage the escalating violence.
In addition to destroying any possibility of teaching or learning, the conditions appear to result, in part, from
a network of corrupt staffers [who] smuggle in drugs, cash, cellphones and scalpels.
We have to stop the damage.
Tell your Council member that you support legislation to repair the harms of slavery and explore reparations. Ask them to look into conditions at youth detention facilities run by ACS.
We’ll end today with my favorite verses of Ella’s Song, crafted by Bernice Johnson Reagon from Ella Baker’s words:
We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes
Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons
Is as important as the killing of white men, white mothers' sons
The older I get the better I know that the secret of my going on
Is when the reins are in the hands of the young, who dare to run against the storm
Struggling myself don't mean a whole lot, I've come to realize
That teaching others to stand up and fight is the only way my struggle survives
Don’t be too literal. We can and we must rest. I’m sure that Ella Baker meant that we must not give up.
with love,
L