On This Juneteenth, We Celebrate Black Love
It was June 1865. The Confederacy lay in ruins. All across the South, giant slave labor camps (also known as “plantations”) had been reduced to ashes. Four million enslaved persons — many of whom had fled their enslavers during the war — were free after a quarter-millennia of bondage. But not in Texas. News of emancipation traveled slowly to the Lone Star State. On June 19, Union General Gordon Granger delivered the good news upon arriving in the port city of Galveston. Thus was born “Juneteenth,” a holiday celebrated first in Texas and now nationwide.
“Black Love is a force that returns us to ourselves through each other,” writes Nicholas Powers in his lyrical survey of the centuries-long Black Freedom struggle. And so, with their newfound freedom, many formerly enslaved persons would take to the road in search of loved ones they previously had been separated from.
For more:
Black Love as a Historical Force
By Nicholas Powers
Black Literature is a Mirror to America
By Nicholas Powers
Why We Explode
By Nicholas Powers
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Indy Radio
We’re back on the air tomorrow 5–6 p.m. with The Indypendent News Hour on WBAI-99.5 FM and streaming on wbai.org. We’ll have more on Thursday’s raucous RGB public hearing in Brooklyn. We’ll also speak with John Teufel, who wrote the cover story for The Indypendent’s June print edition. And, we’ll talk to State Senator Kristen Gonzalez about the just-concluded legislative session in Albany. Gonzalez, a democratic socialist, represents a waterfront district that runs from Astoria to Williamsburg and includes parts of Manhattan’s east side. She is the youngest woman to ever serve in the State Senate.