“We have come too far and at too great a cost to be turned back from our commitment to racial justice because some politicians, whatever their standing, seek votes in dividing, rather than binding, the spirit of America.”
Our Quote of the Week reminds us that the movement towards racial justice has come far but must keep moving forward, particularly in the face of opposition that seeks to divide us. We remember these words in preparation for Juneteenth, a day of celebration that also reminds us of the cruelty of slavery, and of the long road we still have to achieving racial equity.
While on the campaign trail during his Presidential run in 1975-76, Sargent Shriver made a speech about busing at Cooper Union in New York. Although the speech is almost 48 years old, Shriver’s words continue to resonate. He reminds the audience:
“Behind everything there is still the sin and curse of slavery, and the fact that for black Americans, the way up through hard work and education was closed in the South by force of law, closed by government policies that combined with private action to create racial ghettos and urban decay.”
While Shriver’s language is rooted in the time (e.g., we wouldn’t typically use the term “ghettos” in this way today), his observation points to a fundamental truth about the history of our country: that the legacy of slavery continues to shape our systems -- and prevents Black Americans from enjoying the “unalienable rights” outlined in the Declaration of Independence, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
As a remembrance of the day when, on June 19, 1865, the last formerly enslaved people were informed that slavery had been abolished, Juneteenth brought us much closer to a universal “independence day” than July 4, 1776 had. However, it is also a bittersweet day, both because it reminds us that there were people still suffering under the system of slavery after the moment of emancipation (which had occurred over two years earlier in January 1963), and because those who had been enslaved were “freed” by and large into an agrarian society without any land or reasonable opportunities, and in a place where the power structure continued to be dominated by racist ideas.
Let us commit to doing all we can to ensure that we move swiftly and decisively towards a society where we are all emancipated and able to fulfill the promise of our founding documents: the exercising of our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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