21-DAY JUNETEENTH CHALLENGE©
– FREEDOM SCHOOL #21DayActionPlan
Curated by Drs. Eddie Moore, Fred Dixon, Khalid el-Karim, Shemariah J. Arki, John Igwebuike, Katarina Smiley, and Delbert Richardson
©2014-2024 All Rights Reserved America & Moore, LLC
“History is not the past. It is the present.
We carry our history with us. We are our history.”
– James Baldwin
Welcome to our Juneteenth Freedom School! This #21DayActionPlan is designed to amplify the message of the Black freedom struggle in the United States. Note, specifically, that Juneteenth celebrates not only the date, but the legacy of a people who have made magnificent contributions to the world despite obstacles, impediments, and the legacy of white supremacy. Thus, the content of this #21DayActionPlan antedates Juneteenth in order to provide an accurate historical context of antebellum America and the people who made it memorable.
This #21DayActionPlan affords anyone an opportunity to carry the legacy of Black liberation –– deliberately, intentionally, and consistently –– through a step-by-step, curated, habit-building, awareness-raising, life-changing action plan. In the spirit of our ancestors, we invited you to create, transform, and manifest greatness through the unique and special way you enact, embody, and demonstrate your personal/familial connection to getting Black folx free!
The Assata Chant
It is our duty to fight for our freedom!
It is our duty to win!
We must love and support one another.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.
21 POWERFUL JUNETEENTH QUOTES THAT WILL INSPIRE YOU TO ACTION
“Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people.”
– Nelson Mandela, South African Revolutionary and Freedom Fighter
“Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it’s against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it’s against the oppressor. You don’t need anything else.”
– Malcolm X, Human Rights Activist and Minister
“I knew then and I know now, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it.”
– Claudette Colvin, Civil Rights Activist
“I swear to the Lord I still can’t see why democracy means everybody but me.”
– Langston Hughes, Poet
“Now I’ve been free, I know what a dreadful condition slavery is. I have seen hundreds of escaped slaves, but I never saw one who was willing to go back and be a slave.”
– Harriet Tubman, Abolitionist
“Struggle is a never-ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.”
– Coretta Scott King, Activist and Author
“Every year we must remind successive generations that this event triggered a series of events that one by one defines the challenges and responsibilities of successive generations. That’s why we need this holiday.”
– Al Edwards, Politician
“We’re in denial of the African holocaust.”
– Ilyasah Shabazz, Educator and Author
“Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.”
– Frederick Douglass, Abolitionist
“Freedom is not something that one person can bestow on another as a gift. They claim it as their own and none can keep it from them.”
– Kwame Nkrumah, First Prime Minister and President of Ghana
“Go to work! Go to work in the morn of a new creation… until you have… reached the height of self-progress, and from that pinnacle bestow upon the world a civilization of your own.”
– Marcus Garvey, Political Activist
“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”
– Maya Angelou, Poet and Civil Rights Activist
“Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. During slavery, who was able to read or write or keep anything? The ability to have somebody to tell your story to is so important. It says: ‘I was here. I may be sold tomorrow. But you know I was here.’ ”
– Maya Angelou, Poet and Civil Right Activist
“For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.”
– Audre Lorde, Feminist Writer and Activist
“Freedom, Freedom, I can't move. Freedom, cut me loose. Singin', freedom! Freedom! Where are you? 'Cause I need freedom, too. I break chains all by myself. Won't let my freedom rot in hell. Hey! I'ma keep running 'Cause a winner don't quit on themselves!”
– Beyoncé Giselle Knowles Carter
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress…This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
Frederick Douglass, Abolitionist
“We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.”
Angela Davis, Activist and Author
“We are powerful because we have survived, and that is what it is all about- survival and growth.”
Audre Lorde
“We are not fighting for integration, nor are we fighting for separation. We are fighting for recognition as human beings...In fact, we are actually fighting for rights that are even greater than civil rights and that is human rights.”
Malcolm X, Human Rights Activist and Minister
“As black people, our lives are not tragedies. I will keep fighting against that narrative. Our lives are survival stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. These stories are about joy and celebration and our inherent power. No-one has the capacity to steal our joy. We must resist, resist and keep resisting. We refuse to be annihilated.”
Diriye Osman, Visual Artist and Creative Writer
“Nobody’s free until everyone’s free.”– Fannie Lou Hamer, Voting Rights Activists
1. HISTORY & BACKGROUND
WHAT IS JUNETEENTH?
The term portmanteau is defined as a combination of two or more words to create a new word. Consider the following combinations for your illumination: internet + phone = iphone; education + entertainment = edutainment; book + shelf = bookshelf; Motor + Town = Motown, as in Motown records; soul + food = soul food; and ebony + phonics = ebonics. This #21DayActionPlan celebrates a special portmanteau, June + Nineteenth = Juneteenth. Indeed, Juneteenth commemorates the notice of emancipation to our ancestors in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865.
The combination of the words “June” and “nineteenth” serves as a liberating call to action to those who identify as educators, activists, organizers, creatives –– anyone who has identified themselves a member of the movement for Black liberation. It is a time where all Americans are invited to acknowledge both the atrocities of America's past while celebrating the multiple manifestations of #BlackExcellence. This same Black genius that transformed grunts and groans to give the world glorious Gospel, burdens into the blessing of the Blues, injustice into Jazz, and heaviness of inner city poverty into hip hop. The spirit of Juneteenth celebrates the power of a people who simply would not (let their spirit) die.
BOOKS
FOR
YOUTH
Click here to find Black-owned bookstores by state that have online shopping.
Juneteenth (The Story of Our Holidays)
Joanna Ponto and Angela Leeper
Juneteenth
Vauda Micheaux Nelson
The Story Behind Juneteenth
Jack Reader
WATCH
2. EMANCIPATION
It must be stated unequivocally that the emancipation of enslaved peoples of African descent was not the result of one man, one president, one group, one document, one Emancipation Proclamation, nor the passage of the one 13th Amendment by Congress in January 31, 1865. No! As our African forebears foretold: “It would take a village.” Hence, this #21DayActionPlan invokes Sankofa –– an ancient Ghanain symbol, associated with the Akan tradition, that loosely translates to looking back while looking forward. True emancipation includes and recognizes a looking back at the millions of enslaved Africans who died seeking freedom (for future generations) by resisting slave catchers in the Motherland, enacting emancipatory revolts on slave ships, stirring uprisings on slave ships; and even mounting death resistance on plantations proclaiming: “Before I become a slave I’ll be buried in my grave.” This abolition activism continued as tens of thousands of our ancestors fought and died in the Revolutionary War believing the “Declaration” [of Independence] that “all men are created equal.” Yes, the Harriet Tubmans, Frederick Douglasses, John Browns, liberatory porters and conductors of the Underground Railroad, and generations untold did the liberation work long before Monday, June 19, 1865 announcement of emancipation was read in Texas. Emancipation Proclamation was penned and proclaimed or the 13th Amendment was passed and promulgated.
READ
DO
Reflect and answer these questions.
View the following images. What comes to mind when looking at them separately? Together?
1. How do you think Juneteenth and the celebration of Black pride has evolved over time?
2. Why is joy a critical component of Juneteenth celebrations?
How is joy a form of resistance?
3. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said that justice delayed is justice denied.
What other ways have total emancipation been stalled for Black people in the US?
4. What role does Juneteenth play in the global movement for the liberation of Black lives?
5. Given the uprisings surrounding systemic racism that we witnessed in 2020, how do you see the celebrations of Juneteenth evolving?
Images:
• Mr. Oliver, 1863. Albumen silver print of an escaped enslaved man named, Peter, showing his scarred back at a medical examination in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1863
• Juneteenth Band. Photograph by Grace Murray Stephenson of celebrations in Eastwoods Park, Austin, 1900
• “Juneteenth” by Synthia Saint James. Poster depicting the Juneteenth, the holiday celebrating the end of slavery in 1865
3. UBUNTU
ubuntu ngumuntu ngabantu
I am a person through other people; my humanity is tied to yours.
– Zulu Proverb
Indeed, the commemoration and celebration of Juneteenth also makes real the contemporaneous and permanent work of liberation, as we are being transformed before our very eyes through strategies and processes that include globalization, technology, and demographic shifts. Juneteenth makes clear that the future of freedom is not free. The work of freedom is ongoing and never-ending. Thus, emancipation continues today as we work to liberate our minds, decolonize our consciousness, revolt against the legacy of white supremacy, dismantle the shackles of oppression, resist notions of division and embrace the spirit of UBUNTU while we press on to do the village work of anti-racism, for generations born and unborn. This portmanteau-fusion of resiliency speaks to our individual and collective capacities of melanin-rich people to shift from chaos to creative solutions in times of crisis and calamity. Indeed, this commemoration––yes––celebration of Juneteenth embraces the very present and real work of this #21DayActionPlan #JuneteenthFreedomSchool to which we invite everyone to engage, embrace, read, watch, L-I-S-T-E-N, reflect and most importantly, GET ACTIVE in the fight for Black liberation.
READ
13th Amendment of the United States
Read how its language abolished slavery. However, read carefully and note the exceptional language of the Amendment.
WATCH
Explores the impact of racism on health and longevity. Click link for transcript. (57 minutes)
Keynote speech by legal scholar, Jacqueline Battalora, offers a blow-by-blow description of the moment the idea of, and word for, “white” people entered U.S. legal code. (36 minutes)
Explore a Digital Repository for the Black Experience. Developed by Carnegie Mellon University, the archive provides unique virtual access to thousands of African American lives.
GO
The National Museum of African American History and Culture
Visit. You may need three days to fully immerse yourself in the rich collection and archives.
Martin Luther King , Jr. Memorial
Visit Lei Yixin's tribute to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The four-acre memorial includes the Stone of Hope.
DO
The 1619 Project
Participate in The 1619 Project, an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August, 2019, on the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.
We are more than Black trauma.
We are more than Black pain.
We will fight for our freedom until we break every chain.
– Dr. Jamila Lyiscott, Scholar Activist
CONNECT
SOCIAL MEDIA
Follow liberation activists, educators, organizations, and movements on social media. (You can explore posts without having an account.) Check out who these organizations follow, quote, share, and retweet to find more people and organizations to follow.
ENGAGE & ACT
Engagement can be the hardest part for white people new to racial justice work. Engaging in racially mixed settings can trigger age-old power and privilege dynamics. The goal is to be a learner more than a knower, exactly the opposite of what dominant US culture teaches us to be.
Here are some engagement tips to guide you:
• Enter the process to learn and bridge knowledge gaps.
• Ask clarifying questions; be curious.
• Acknowledge what you don’t know.
Though many white people want to jump to action sooner instead of later, action without a vigorous self-education and self-reflection practice can unexpectedly reproduce the very power and privilege dynamics we seek to interrupt in this work.
Here are a few actions that you might consider:
• Invite friend/s, family, and/or colleagues to do the 21-Day Challenge with you.
• Prepare yourself to interrupt racial jokes. Click here for some advice about how.
REFLECT & STAY INSPIRED
WHY REFLECT
Difficult emotions––such as shame and anger––though uncomfortable to feel, can guide you to deeper self-awareness about how power and privilege impacts you and the people in your life.
Reflecting and journaling enhances learning. By using a 21-Day Reflect tool each day, you discover how much you are actually understanding and making meaning. It helps you to transform your personal experience into a learning experience, and thus build your racial equity habits.
Juneteenth Edition Inspiration Songs:
(Listen to the playlist on Spotify)
Give Your Hands to Struggle / Sweet Honey in the Rock
We The People / Tribe Called Quest
Where Is The Love / Black Eyed Peas
LIBERATED (Hands Up to The Sky) / Liv Grace
Our Lives Matter / OnRaé LaTeal ft Afriye and Marley
A Change is Gonna Come / Same Cooke
They Don’t Care About Us / Michael Jackson
Lift Every Voice & Sing / Kirk Franklin
Say it Loud I’m Black and I’m Proud / James Brown
Wake Up Everybody / Marvin Gaye
Fight the Power (Public Enemy)
We shall overcome [Morehouse Men’s Choir]
Have Some Love / Childish Gambino
No More Tear Drops / Vic Mensa
Inner City Blues / Marvin Gaye
Build Black Futures | OnRaé LaTeal ft. Fresco Steez and BYP100
Young, Gifted, and Black / Nina Simone
Someday We’ll All Be Free / Donny Hathaway