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juneteenth
Juneteenth Was Not Freely Given—It Was Won
On Juneteenth's call to justice and the U.S. Supreme Court's role in the eternal quest for Black liberation.
Jun 19, 2024
Juneteenth resonates as a symbol of freedom and resilience, encapsulating the enduring struggle against oppression and the relentless pursuit of equality. It’s a day of remembrance, celebration, and reflection on the journey from bondage to liberation. Beyond its cultural significance, Juneteenth challenges the United States to confront its history of racial injustice and commit to building a future where every citizen enjoys true freedom and equality under the law. Juneteenth is a verb.
In the annals of American history, the Supreme Court played a pivotal yet contradictory role in the quest for Black liberation. As we reflect on our Juneteenth journey, it is evident that the Court has been both a catalyst for progress and an obstacle to justice.
From the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857, which denied citizenship to African Americans, to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954, which dismantled the legal basis for racial segregation, the Court's decisions have swung like a pendulum, shaping the contours of racial justice in America.
The Supreme Court's rulings have occasionally propelled the nation toward equality. The Brown decision 70 years ago, declaring state laws establishing separate public schools for Black and white students to be unconstitutional, ignited the Civil Rights Movement. This was a moment when the Court stood on the right side of history, challenging entrenched systems of racial oppression and setting a precedent for future advances in civil rights.
As we look to the future, let us draw inspiration from the resilience and courage of those who have fought for justice before us—those who fought for freedom from bondage.
However, the path to Black liberation is not linear, and the Court has often regressed, reinforcing racial hierarchies and undermining progress. The 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision, which invalidated key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, serves as a stark reminder. By weakening federal oversight of voting laws, the Court opened the door to a new era of voter suppression, disproportionately affecting Black communities.
This duality underscores a broader truth: legal victories, while crucial, are insufficient on their own. They must be accompanied by sustained activism and grassroots mobilization to ensure that the principles of justice are translated into lived realities. The Court's decisions, influenced by the prevailing political and social climates, highlight the importance of a vigilant and engaged citizenry.
Recent Supreme Court rulings on affirmative action vividly highlight the Court's profound limitations placed on Black liberation, spanning both public and private sectors, with innovations from Black women entrepreneurs poised for continued suppression. Amid decisions that perpetuate systemic inequalities, we confront entrenched patterns of injustice and demand an unwavering judiciary committed to equality and justice for all.
In the context of ongoing struggles against systemic racism and for Black lives, the Supreme Court's role remains pivotal. Advocating for a judiciary that reflects the diverse experiences and needs of the American populace is imperative. This necessitates championing justices who possess not only legal acumen but also a steadfast commitment to social justice.
The conversation about the Court's role in Black liberation must extend beyond the judiciary itself. It requires a holistic approach that includes legislative and policy reforms, educational initiatives, democracy and economic policies aimed at dismantling the structural barriers that perpetuate racial inequities.
It is through the collective efforts of individuals, communities, and public institutions that we can hope to achieve a more just and equitable society.
As we look to the future, let us draw inspiration from the resilience and courage of those who have fought for justice before us—those who fought for freedom from bondage. Juneteenth was not freely given—it was won.
The journey toward Black liberation is far from over, and the Supreme Court, while a powerful institution, is but one arena to reform in this ongoing struggle. It is through the collective efforts of individuals, communities, and public institutions that we can hope to achieve a more just and equitable society.
On this Juneteenth, our task is to remain vigilant, to hold our leaders accountable, and to continue the fight for a society where justice is not merely an ideal, but a reality for all.
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Juneteenth and the Need for a Reimagined, More Progressive Tax Code
Policymakers can only make sensible decisions when they understand what the tax system’s shortcomings have done to Black communities.
Jun 18, 2024
Juneteenth is a reminder of the hard-fought victories that helped Black Americans secure their delayed freedom, justice, and suffrage. And in the chapters about tax policy, the tales are no less fraught. From America’s prologue to the last paragraph of the Civil War, governments raised more tax revenue from the taxation of Black bodies than any other source.
Though Black Americans are no longer taxed as property, their relationship with the property tax system remains challenging. Today, for instance, Black families pay more property taxes than white Americans who own comparable properties. Black people went from being literally taxed as property to being slighted by the property tax system – perpetuating deep economic inequality for a group of people who have always suffered on the soil of this land.
The good news is that progress has been made. Genuine tax equity is not only possible, but it’s within reach.
The civil rights battles of the past 70 years showed how Black leaders and lawmakers can work together to achieve progress in housing, voting, education, jobs, health care, and taxes to redress racial harms. The time is now for policymakers to continue the march toward a more equitable tax code for Black households.
Understanding what led us to this point means acknowledging the brutalization of Black Americans through slavery. This inhumane institution included the taxation of Black people as property. This was no minor issue. Slave taxes were a massive revenue source that paid for public investments that benefited white slaveholders and non-slaveholders alike. For example, these taxes financed the Louisiana Purchase which resulted in material and economic gain that built the foundation for the racial wealth gap we see today.
The conclusion of the Civil War chapter and the abolition of slavery ended the taxation of Black men, women, and children as property. It also ushered in overdue civil rights for Black people in America. This was a jubilant section of the American story. Legislatures in some states raised property taxes to invest in public education and other programs to help formerly enslaved Black Americans get acclimated to the economy they built for free.
The excitement did not last long.
Ultimately, the Reconstruction chapter continued tax injustices against Black people in other forms, especially against Black elected officials. In 1875, Alabama created a new constitution that placed tight property tax limits still in place today. Tax limits make it more difficult to adequately fund high-quality services that heavily depend on property taxes, like schools, roads, and firefighters.
At the turn of the century, a new part of the story began to unfold. On the tax front, this often took the form of blatantly discriminatory property tax assessments. White policymakers — particularly in Mississippi — used highly restrictive property tax limits and supermajority requirements to weaken school funding in Black communities, disempower Black residents, and shift the tax base to more inequitable revenue policies like sales taxes. Mississippi shifted its tax base from white property owners to poorer Black households in 1932 through the advent of the modern sales tax. Black people, with substantially less income, kept paying just as much as their white counterparts, if not more, and contributed significantly toward funding white-only schools while their own schools deteriorated.
In the years that followed, exclusionary housing policies bolstered white wealth while locking many Black families out of homeownership. The impact of those policies is still felt today. Predominantly white neighborhoods can generally make larger investments in public services like education and transportation, because they have larger revenue bases with higher home values, while Black people are overrepresented in under-resourced communities.
Today, as home prices continue to rise, an unbalanced property tax system hinders Black households’ means of accumulating wealth. Black families in gentrifying areas that do not offer income-based property tax solutions struggle to afford their tax bills while Black renters, who pay property taxes indirectly, cannot even save enough for a down payment. Against this backdrop, a staggering racial homeownership gap persists.
Reforming property taxes, a vital source of funding for state and local government, can advance tax justice for Black renters and homeowners and reverse some of the damage of the past four centuries. Property taxes vary widely, so lawmakers at the state and local level must bring Black community leaders and advocates to the table and discuss ways to fix these policies that acutely affect Black renters and homeowners.
Policymakers can only make sensible decisions when they understand what the property tax system’s shortcomings have done to Black communities. Having inclusive conversations can reveal fundamental problems like inaccurate assessments, discriminatory appeals procedures, and a lack of consideration of ability to pay in setting property tax bills. Focusing on these issues would allow legislators and community advocates to reimagine a property tax system that does not exacerbate racial inequities.
At the same time, it is important to avoid backsliding. Lately, too many policymakers are promoting old ideas that are detrimental to Black people like pairing property tax cuts with sales tax increases or establishing firm property tax limits – policies that will do nothing to advance the position of Black Americans and may actually roll back some of the modest progress seen in recent years.
Instead, policymakers should adopt antiracist and practical appraisal practices, use robust property tax circuit breaker programs, and implement and monitor fairer appeals practices to fix these ongoing issues.
Slavery remains America’s greatest sin and the tax policy stemming from it undermined Black people’s attempts to climb out of poverty, build wealth, and become truly free. Lawmakers cannot undo the past, but they can surely learn from it.
A key philosophy behind the American story is justice. Lawmakers must use that ethos for Black taxpayers in this latest section of the narrative. Juneteenth provides us with a chance to reflect on this history and begin writing a new chapter toward tax and racial justice.
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A Juneteenth Reflection on America’s Unfinished Business
This year, as we celebrate the end of chattel slavery in the United States, we must remember the work that Frederick Douglass called upon us all to do remains unfinished.
Jun 18, 2024
“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?” asked Frederick Douglass in his Fourth of July Oration in 1852. “I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty” of America.
Douglass’s speech remains among the most powerful and poignant in United States history more than a century and a half later. With the Civil War nearly a decade away, and the system of chattel slavery still going strong throughout the South and powering the economy throughout the country, Douglass pointed with undeniable clarity at the “venomous creature [that] is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic.”
As we celebrate Juneteenth in 2024, the work that Douglass called upon us all to do remains unfinished. The Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Reconstruction Amendments formally put an end to the widespread practice of enslavement of Black people in this country. But the work of reconstructing our society and creating the truly equitable and free society promised in our founding documents has a long way to go.
Today we have the job of coming to grips with our history and charting a new path for those who come after us.
That is why on this Juneteenth, we should all ask: What, to us, is Juneteenth? For all of us, and especially for the Black community, it is a day of joyful celebration, marking the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, as it has been for a century and a half. It marks the end of that “venomous creature” in the republic. To be sure, each one of us should celebrate that important day in 1865, as the Black community did so memorably in Texas that year.
But on Juneteenth, we should also remember that while the snake may have been slain, too much of its venom remains in our system. The venom still takes the form of racism, racial inequity, and the enduring power of white supremacy.
What, to each of us today, is Juneteenth? For those of us in the white community of the United States, I see it as a call to action to do our part to continue the work of reconstruction. We can and should imagine a truly equitable, multiracial America—one we have never before encountered but one which remains a real possibility. There is a fierce pushback against this work today, but this is a pushback we must resist as we continue the unfinished work of Reconstruction.
Like many white Americans whose families have been in the United States for a long time, and in fact came to these shores before the nation even existed, my family has both been involved in the business of enslaving others and has fought for the end of slavery. As Douglass pointed out in his soaring Fourth of July oration, ancestors of mine have done terrible things to others in the name of Christianity, in pursuit of money, and out of ignorance and hate. Others have valiantly fought against friends and families to create a better, fairer society.
Today we have the job of coming to grips with our history and charting a new path for those who come after us. That is why white people must join with others in the work of making our communities and institutions more diverse. Those of us who identify as white and male have a particular obligation to reflect on Juneteenth and consider how we can use what we have to be part of overcoming in the name of a brighter, more sustainable future. We have power to wield, and should wield it, in making our economies more equitable and inclusive.
In Chicago, where I live, there is a fact that I cannot shake. I can’t get it out of my head that a baby born in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Englewood is expected to live 30 years less than a baby born on the same day in the predominantly white, and more wealthy, neighborhood of Streeterville downtown. That is a difference of six miles—and 30 years.
The promise of abolition, a healed and equal society, has not yet been realized. And we can only get there by working together with friends, community, and in solidarity.
This disparity of life expectancy is a combination of a multitude of factors of which racial identity is one, but it boils down to this: a Black baby born in one part of our nation’s third largest city is less likely to enjoy as long and healthy a life as a white baby born a few miles away. There is no way to imagine that this marks an equal society. Health disparities such as this one affect Native American communities and Latin communities across America, too.
Alongside health, consider gaps in education, earnings, and wealth between racial groups in the United States, in state after state. These, in the words of Douglass, remain among our “national inconsistencies.” Black Americans consistently enjoy fewer of the fruits of the republic than those of other racial and ethnic groups. To achieve true racial healing in America, to get the venom truly out of our system, requires us to keep at the work of racial equity.
The promise of abolition, a healed and equal society, has not yet been realized. And we can only get there by working together with friends, community, and in solidarity. At the MacArthur Foundation, we put this approach into practice each day as we collectively strive to lead with a commitment to justice. The progress we have made in the past, and any progress in the future, requires collaboration between people from all kinds of backgrounds.
Juneteenth is a call to do better as a nation, to create an America in which every child born today—no matter their race, their ethnicity, their gender, their neighborhood—has an equal chance to thrive. We remain a long way from that reality. No matter our race, we should do our part on the unfinished work of creating a free and equal society.
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