(Updated on June 20, 2025)
We wouldn’t be celebrating Juneteenth—the day slaves were fully emancipated in the United States—without the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. Following his death at the hand (actually, under the knee) of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, protests erupted across the country. Significantly, the marches and protests were multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-generational and multi-national, and they shined a spotlight on the systemic racism that has targeted black and brown communities for centuries.
People marched not just against abusive policing and excessive use of force but for something much deeper—a commitment to affirm the humanity and value of black lives and for passage of new policies that would create equity for marginalized people.
The nation responded. Police policies were reviewed and changed, rogue police officers were held accountable, states and the federal government invested in programs that addressed the root causes of violence and poverty and initiatives that elevated under-represented groups. Even corporate America stepped up the make commitments to racial equity.
A year after George Floyd’s death, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law on June 17, 2021.
Sadly, backlash against these initiatives and reforms came swiftly. Juneteenth is still a federal holiday—at least for now—but the gains made since 2020 have been reversed at both the state and federal levels. (Read the president’s Juneteenth Truth Social post below.)
In 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis condemned “woke ideology” as he signed into law the “Stop WOKE Act”—also known as the “Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act.” The law prohibits schools and workplaces from teaching about systemic racism and certain concepts related to race, gender, and social privilege, and it bans thousands of books about race and marginalized people.
On the federal level, the current administration has issued a flood of executive orders closing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion offices within all government departments, following the plan envisioned by Project 2025. Corporations also have abandoned their prior commitments to DEI and ended their sponsorship of certain festivals and events that do not align with the new administration’s values and agenda.
As Rev. Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, pointed out in an opinion piece published by The Hill, this backlash is nothing new. “Every step toward reform is met with retrenchment, a doubling down on the very racist and unfair systems we seek to dismantle,” he writes. “After Reconstruction came Jim Crow. After the civil rights movement came mass incarceration. And, after Barack Obama and Black Lives Matter came Project 2025.”
On this Juneteenth holiday, we must remember the past victories and the progress gained for full inclusion and equality of all people, but we must also recognize the nature of the beast that continues to threaten that progress. Juneteenth could be on the chopping block next.
In the words of Rev. Moss, “The backlash has been loud, but we can be louder…” Retreat is not an option. “We must keep pushing the needle forward….” That first June 19, 1865, was Liberation Day! So, go forward in the power of the Spirit to announce good news to the poor, the oppressed, the discounted, the dismissed, the disenfranchised: God’s truth IS marching on! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
UPDATE: The President’s Juneteenth Post. True to form, the president used Juneteenth to complain about the number of federal paid holidays on the calendar the cost to business. He wrote: “Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed. The workers don’t want it either! Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” This is a slaveholder’s response.
Tongue on Fire 