Juneteenth celebrations still rang out across the country in 2025. But, this year was different. There weren't as many. Some were subdued. Others were canceled. The change was palpable. And, it was far-reaching. 

It's easy to say, as many officials did, that safety was the issue. If the threat of violence is real and security is the problem, what happened? How did we get here? Why is this year different?

The political climate has clearly changed. Diversity, equity and inclusive (DEI) initiatives across the country have been gutted and defunded. DEI programs, on the federal and state levels and in the public sector, were meant to level the playing field and provide needed support so that every person regardless of color, gender, sexual preference or disability has the opportunity to thrive.

DEI programs have long been targeted by a segment of the population that portrayed them as anti-white, a sort of reverse discrimination claim. And, unfortunately, it is that idea that currently controls the government in the US. Federal DEI programs have been obliterated and the pressure on corporate entities, states, and educational institutions to eliminate initiatives has been relentless. Many have capitulated.

What does DEI have to do with Juneteenth? Federal DEI grants funded many celebrations. When the federal government under the current regime unceremoniously yanked those grants, events already planned fell by the wayside.

Black organizers also voluntarily, albeit reluctantly, canceled or moved events to smaller venues. One of the reasons often stated was the fear of a violent backlash. That leads us back to where we started - they canceled because of security issues. What should be a celebration of freedom, remembrance and joy is now tainted by fear. 

“What we’re seeing – businesses pulling back and universities canceling programs in response to attacks on DEI – shows that many institutions and corporations were never truly committed to diversity and inclusion,” said LaTasha Levy, a professor of Afro-American Studies at Howard University, a historically Black university in Washington, DC. “We’re not even being honest about what DEI really stands for.”

It seems that every step forward is two steps back. Equality and equity for all Americans, is not a given. It's never a win. It's always work. And, it's worth fighting for. 

Resources: 
​How cities are scaling back Juneteenth celebrations after Trump-era DEI rollbacks

No longer looking for votes, Trump changes his tune about the Juneteenth holiday

Freedom Day for All Americans

Celebrate Juneteenth - Why & How

Smallpox is a deadly disease, a highly contagious virus that disfigures most, and kills from 30% - 50% of its victims. Often, even those who recover suffer from lifelong afflictions related to the illness.

​Smallpox swept the country in the late 1700s, and was the catalyst for the first protective vaccine ever developed. It is the only disease declared eradicated by the World Health Organization.

​The vaccination's development is one of pride, but also shame.  Pride because the vaccine has officially eradicated smallpox. Shame, because the road to the vaccine came on the backs, or the arms, rather, of the enslaved. 

Dr. Edward Jenner is widely recognized as developing the first effective smallpox vaccine in 1796. But, his road to its development in the United States begins in 1716 when a slave named Onesimus "owned" by Cotton Mather, told Mather that he had smallpox at one time, and was cured of it. Onesimus described a long-used method to protect against the virus called variolation.

The procedure involved taking infected material from the blisters of the afflicted, and placing it in a cut on the arm of a healthy individual. The healthy person was then protected from the worst form of the virus. 

Those of us who don't wear tin hats recognize the process. A milder form of the virus was introduced into a healthy person's body, allowing the body's immune system to build antibodies to fight and turn the disease away when encountered. 

Mather widely publicized the procedure, which was met with both relief and fear. And, like today, proof that it worked was required. The road to that proof, as well as the vaccine's further development, depended on a group who had no say in the matter - slaves. 

Used as "property," slaves were the ideal guinea pigs. First, slaves were intentionally given the virus and then the inoculation to ensure efficacy. When the procedure proved beneficial, slaves became "vessels" for vaccine harvest. 

The Civil War became a killing field in more ways than one - smallpox reared its ugly head at a time when there was a shortage of vaccine material. Who better than the enslaved, or the newly emancipated living in refugee camps, to supply vaccine material? 

Medical officers on both sides infected enslaved or newly emancipated babies and children with smallpox in order to create the vaccine. Sometimes these living "vessels" were sent on ships in order to transport vaccine material to another location. One documented case is of a 9-year-old girl whose arm was the vaccine's "container."

Dr. Jenner's vaccine in 1796 used cowpox material to create the vaccine instead of actual smallpox matter. But, from Onesimus, who first explained the procedure to Mather, through the later ordeals of experimentation and inhumane practices, the development of the smallpox vaccine and slavery are forever entwined. 

Sources: 
Vaccine Voyages: Where Science Meets Slavery
Never Forget That Early Vaccines Came From Testing on Enslaved People
How a Boston African Slave Helped Fight a Smallpox Epidemic

As 2025 rolls on, hope is harder and harder to come by. The reality of life in the US has changed significantly, and chaos continues to ensue. 

Black folks in America and around the world know better than anyone how to keep going when it looks like all is lost. There are wins, but there are also losses. Many losses. Despair and powerlessness overwhelm us. But, we can take inspiration from Black activists, writers, and thought leaders past and present, as we look to the journey ahead. This is where we begin. 

The Big Lie
Guest post by Kristine Schwartzman

After the Civil War, part of the Reconstruction plan included giving formerly enslaved Black Americans land, land owned by the very people who enslaved them. Intended to give freed Black people a start on building their lives, the plan died right along with Abraham Lincoln. 

In this groundbreaking historical investigation, Reveal tracks the lives of 1,250 freed people who were given land, only to have white supremacist Andrew Johnson, who became president after Lincoln’s death, pave the way for former enslavers and landowners, to get the land back. And, how they succeeded!

So, why bring this up now? Because the consequences still resound today. Reparations given, and then taken away - turned once hopeful lives into further toil and poverty that passed down through generations. Those families still pay the price of being kidnapped from their homes, and turned into property. This is not the “past.” It is now.

ABOUT THE WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT
Introduction by Sally Roesch Wagner
Edited by Sally Roesch Wagner
Foreword by Gloria Steinem

An intersectional anthology of works by the known and unknown women that shaped and established the suffrage movement...

Comprised of historical texts spanning two centuries, The Women’s Suffrage Movement is a comprehensive and singular volume with a distinctive focus on incorporating race, class, and gender, and illuminating minority voices.

This one-of-a-kind intersectional anthology features the writings of the most well-known suffragists, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, alongside accounts of those often overlooked because of their race, from Native American women to African American suffragists like Ida B. Wells and the three Forten sisters.

At a time of enormous political and social upheaval, there could be no more important book than one that recognizes a group of exemplary women–in their own words–as they paved the way for future generations.

The editor and introducer, Sally Roesch Wagner, is a pre-eminent scholar of the diverse backbone of the women’s suffrage movement, the founding director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, and serves on the New York State Women’s Suffrage Commission.

-- Penguin Random House

Nancy Kendall's life of working with the Underground Railroad is a constant reminder that there are good Samaritans out there who risked their lives as Nancy Kendall and Andrew Kendall did to help others.

They are often lost in the background. I think they are not mentioned, because their lives don't seem dramatic enough. And, because many of them were, and are, Black themselves. 

We all know Harriet Tubman, of course. But, how many of us have heard of Walter White?

Walter White was a Black civil rights leader who helped form the NAACP. He was a white news reporter who let the rest of America, and the world, in on Jim Crow laws, lynchings, "unsolved" murders, and the crimes committed against Black citizens by white America. 

"White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America's Darkest Secret" by A.J. Baime uncovers the details of a remarkable life - Walter F. White, a Black activist who risked his own life investigating racist murders while passing for white. He was fair skinned with a racially mixed background who passed easily, leading a dangerous double-life, using white privilege to shine a light on the America's darkest crimes. 

In the wake of yet another Black man's death at the hands of those who were supposed to protect and serve, we take courage in the fact that there are those in the past and present who work to change the course of justice in America. Their stories must be told.
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