Why we’re closing this Juneteenth

You’re likely familiar with the history. On this day in 1865, Union soldiers entered Galveston, Texas and spread word of emancipation in the last of the slave-holding states, making Juneteenth the official end of slavery and an independence day that should be celebrated by all Americans.

The Community Service Society will commemorate this crucial holiday by closing our offices and giving our staff and volunteers a day to honor the achievements and perseverance of black Americans and reflect on the substantial work that still lies ahead in the struggle to attain true equality.

Today, the forefront of this struggle is the movement to divest from bloated police departments that are resistant to change and invest in under-resourced communities that need better schools, better health care, and better jobs. 

We recognize that not all police officers are biased, but before Americans took to the streets to voice their outrage over the senseless murder of George Floyd, all police officers were virtually immune to the consequences of their aggressive actions against black and brown communities.

Now, reform efforts are gaining steam. New York has already passed critical measures, like repealing laws that shield police officers from public scrutiny of their misconduct. All over the country, municipalities are rethinking what it means to serve and protect, rather than oppress and criminalize. This movement will continue. This is a painful but critically important moment for a nation that has never fully grappled with how to dismantle a 400-year-old racial caste system.

But as any of us who fight for social justice understand, the legacy of enslavement has trickled down into nearly every facet of our society: from underfunded schools, to crumbling public housing, to overcrowded prisons that have stolen too many black futures. We see this disparity most starkly in the harrowing effects of the Covid-19 virus, which has hit black New Yorkers nearly four times as hard as their white counterparts. The reasons for this are structural, tied to decades of policy decisions that have left communities of color with substandard access to health care and equal life chances.

This week, in testimony before the New York State Attorney General, I argued that in order to acheive real equity, we need “a new social contract that provides for what New Yorkers need to live, grow, and fully participate in the life of the community, namely healthcare, housing, community development, education, food security, and living wage employment; with essential supports like paid sick leave, predictable schedules, and automatic expungement of criminal records that hold people back.”

Today, as an organization and as a community, we’ll honor our history, engage in opportunities to learn and deepen our understanding of slavery’s legacy, and support black-owned businesses and black-led causes. Many of us will march in the streets. Tomorrow, we’ll begin anew building a social compact that truly provides liberty and justice for all.  

In solidarity. 

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