More About Juneteenth

Join the Calvary Racial Equity Initiative (REI) Team after worship this Sunday, June 18, to celebrate our newest Federal holiday and the oldest known holiday that observes the end of slavery in the U.S. Enjoy Coffee Hour with treats from a local Black-owned business and information about Black heroes. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Gen. Gordon Granger announced that the enslaved people in Texas were free by the order of the president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1862. The Calvary church building will be closed on Monday, June 19 to commemorate Juneteenth. This blog will provide links to Juneteenth history resources and information about reparations.

Amos 5:24

“But let justice and fairness flow

like a river that never runs dry.”

The Calvary Racial Equity Initiative (REI) Team has been doing great work over the years to provide important conversations, workshops, book talks, and public actions that raise up antiracist practices. They hosted the second “Do the Work! Antiracism Workshop” last Sunday, as well as provided an invitation to join last Thursday’s “Reparations for African Americans via Zoom” meeting with San Francisco Black & Jewish Unity Coalition’s meeting with Donald Tamaki of the California State Task Force on Reparations for African Americans. In January, Calvary folks walked in the San Francisco Martin Luther King, Jr. Day March as well as stayed at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for the program on Reparations with SF Human Rights Commission Director, Sheryl Davis, Rev. Amos Brown and several others.

Reparations negotiations are happening at city, state, and federal levels. This Politico article suggests that reparations up to $1.2 million per person could happen in CA. The San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee’s 60-page proposal includes the criteria for receiving reparations. “To be eligible for reparations, San Francisco residents must be 18 years or older, have been identifying as Black or African American on public documents for at least 10 years, and meet two of eight additional criteria, including having been born or migrating to the city between 1940 and 1996 as well as showing proof of at least 13 years of residency; Having been incarcerated “by the failed War on Drugs” or being the direct descendant of someone who was; Being a descendant of someone who was enslaved through US chattel slavery before 1865; Having been displaced between 1954 and 1973 or being a descendant of someone who did; Being part of a marginalized group who experienced lending discrimination in the city between 1937 and 1968 or in “formerly redlined” communities within the city between 1968 and 2008, according to the committee’s plan.”

During the Calvary Antiracist Workshop, people made suggestions about what we could do to raise awareness about harmful systemic policies. We could walk the Fillmore St. neighborhood and find out where the redlining happened, mainly in Western Addition. Jennifer Gee facilitated writing down community ideas. There are similar recommendations from the “Big List of Actions You Can Take” within the Do the Work: An Antiracist Workshop workbook” by W. Kamau Bell and Kate Schatz. Some of the positive suggestions were: “Reassure folks that workshops are safe. We all need to be ambassadors. How do we partner with neighborhood resources focusing on early education? Share personal stories. Join conversations about reparations. Volunteer and work with people different than you. Attend events. Continue educating ourselves. Get buy in from groups in church. Engage with other groups of color that are already doing things: museum event, clean a park, etc. then have a meal together.”

Here is a list of resources collated by the REI Team.

It is easy to get overwhelmed by information. Take your time choosing a resource. Share what you learn with someone. Join actions that are already happening.

Many thanks for the consistent work of the entire REI Team.

Appreciations to the REI Planning Team: Kathy Bear, Betsy Dodd, Sally Durgan, Priscilla Dwyer, Alexa Frankenberg, Jen Gee, Marci Glass, Erin King, Tosca Lee. Ann Myers, and Joanne Whitt

HISTORY

• www.juneteenth.com/history

• www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross-/history/what-is-juneteenth

ARTICLES

• The New York Times: www.nytimes.com/article/juneteenth-day-celebration

• CNBC: www.cnbc.com/2020/06/15/what-is-juneteenth-holidays-history-explained

• Mental Floss: www.mentalfloss.com/article/501680/12-things-you-might-not-know-about-juneteenth

BIG LIST of ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE

From the Do the Work: An Antiracist Workshop workbook. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/56271355

VIDEOS

• History of Juneteenth: 

www.youtube.com/watch?=dli_53jihMM; www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwe7pQPMcGo

• What is Juneteenth?: www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3aQjTy328o

• Juneteenth: Freedom at Last: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOOguH71–E

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

• The Juneteenth Story: Celebrating the End of Slavery in the United States by Alliah L Agostini, Illustrated by Sawyer Cloud https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Juneteenth_Story/baFhEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

• Juneteenth for Mazie by Floyd Cooper https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/23009447

POEM

• Free at Last – Juneteenth Poem by Sojourner Kincaid Rolle https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/free-at-last-juneteenth-poem-revised/

MUSEUMS

• Museum of African Dispora: www.moadsf.org

• Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture: www.nmaahc.si.edu

• California African American Museum: www.caamuseum.org

• Buffalo Soldiers Museum: www.buffalosoldiersmuseum.com

• Museum of African American History: www.maah.org

• National Center for Civil and Human Rights: www.civilandhumanrights.org

• New Orleans African American Museum: www.noaam.org

• Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture: www.lewismuseum.org

• Troy University’s Rosa Parks Museum: www.visiting-montgomery.com/play/rosa-parks-library-museum-childrens-wing

• Old Slave Mart Museum: www.theoldslavemartmuseum.org

• National Civil Rights Museum: www.civilrightsmuseum.org

• Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Park: www.nps.gov/malu