Dear Friend,
Juneteenth, for me, has always been a complicated story of liberation, resilience, and oppression. It’s long been celebrated as a day of emancipation and deliverance from slavery, which Texas denied Black residents long after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed and the Civil War was lost. It’s a testament to the beauty and resilience of Black American culture. But it’s also a reminder that the promise of freedom has yet to be realized for us all.
And it’s making real the promise of freedom that drives me and the work we do at Precinct One. There is no question that we’ve made incredible progress in the ongoing struggle for freedom, equality, and justice. From slavery to emancipation to Jim Crow to the Civil Rights Movement to now, we have pushed forward and won many of the rights that are owed to us through sacrifice and perseverance. And we should celebrate every milestone we meet as we travel the moral arc of the universe that bends toward the just world Rev. Dr. Martin L. King Jr. glimpsed from the mountaintop.
But what is freedom to those still bound by the chains of oppression forged from slavery and white
supremacy? What is freedom to those who still bear the crushing weight of racial injustice on their necks and carry the burden of inequality on their shoulders? For decades, our communities have been over-criminalized and under-resourced. It’s not a coincidence that plantations became
prison farms after emancipation or that Black people have been disproportionately harmed for decades by an unjust system of mass incarceration that has robbed generations of their freedom and opportunity.
Our neighborhoods have been neglected, redlined, and polluted. Our families have been shut off from investments that build wealth and protect health and, instead, been exposed to the hazards of environmental racism and failing infrastructure. The cause is systemic and enduring racism.
These are truths that no one can deny, yet our movement for freedom and racial justice is up against a movement to whitewash our history, roll back our rights, and block future progress. We cannot be deterred by Jim Crow revivalists, cowardly politicians, and violent extremists clinging to the myth of white supremacy.
In Harris County, we push forward. We are working to strengthen our democracy and defend the right to vote; protect our communities with a holistic approach to
safety and
justice;
bridge the wealth divide through economic opportunity that supports and empowers working people; overcome decades of neglect and underinvestment that have left our neighborhoods
vulnerable to disasters and toxic pollution; and reduce racial and economic disparities so that every person has equitable access to housing, food, and health care.
On Juneteenth and every day of the year, we must all answer the call to break chains and build bonds. We must all be free to live in a world that is truly safe and just,
where we are connected to each other, connected to resources that provide stability in turbulent times, and connected to hope grounded in real opportunity that a better life is in reach. Only then can the promise of freedom be realized for us all. Sincerely,
