Lace on Race

Juneteenth in the Age of George Floyd

By Dr. Selika Ducksworth Lawton

Contributing Writer

Dr. Selika Ducksworth Lawton is currently a Professor of history at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.  Dr. Ducksworth-Lawton is a specialist in Twentieth-Century African American Military, National Security, and Civil Rights History. She works in the intersection of race, national security, civil rights, and protest. Her book, Honorable Men: Armed Self Defense and the Deacons for Defense and Justice, is under contract with University Press of Mississippi and expected in press early next year.  Honorable Men describes how African Americans veterans in the Deacons for Defense and Justice combined their military service knowledge with an African American vision of republicanism and citizenship to create a militia in Louisiana that successfully fought the Klan in the 1965-8 activists and protects white and African American Congress of Racial Equality activists. Dr. Ducksworth Lawton is the co-author of Minority and Gender Differences in Officer Career Progression.   She is working on a new book on the impact of culture and geography on the activists’ choices between non-violence and armed self-defense in several states in 1964-1967.  She earned her PhD in 1994 from Ohio State University in 20th Century military and African American History. 

Juneteenth is the celebration of the freeing of the last slaves in Galveston, Texas by the United States Army. It celebrates Black survival and achievement despite obstacles. It stands for resistance to lynching and regulations (like the destruction of Tulsa or the expelling of Blacks from Forsythe County, Georgia.) It stands for the refusal to give in to humiliation, submission, or slavery by another name… otherwise known as Jim Crow. It stands for the first step towards liberty and justice for all, instead of liberty and justice for some. 

Yet we still have liberty and justice for some. George Floyd’s death has shown us how very little has changed since 1968. The Supreme Court gutted federal police accountability within the Enforcement Acts of the 1870s. This activist Court created an idea of qualified immunity, and now uses it to shield rogue peace officers. Some Democrats and most Republican jurists on the Court support this gutting of the Fourteenth Amendment. This destruction helped bring about this moment. 

Juneteenth gives this world a moment to reflect on how people can watch a man die, and deny his humanity because of the color of his skin and the mythology of the coon.  We ponder how so called Christians applaud and wave away protecting the life of a person who served his time. We interrogate how an alleged pro-life movement deems some lives less worthy of protection because of “responsibility” and “moral hazard” … and yet have the nerve to claim that All Lives Matter. If Floyd can be summarily executed for a mistaken accusation, and his death excused because of a past criminal record… then “all” is a fiction, and certain lives do not matter. Given the lack of enforcement for discrimination and false accusation… my Black female life does not matter to some whites. That is my reality.

What scares me this Juneteenth is the number of previously covert racists who are now displaying overt racism. Black people have always known that “microaggressions” cover covert racism… they are racism leaks. Now my white friends are seeing  how many people they know… feel free to be overtly racist.  Even as pictures of white looters predominate in the news, supremacists blame “the blacks.” Even as images of police brutality against peaceful protesters proliferate, supremacists defend the brutality using the stereotypes of the Coon/thug, the Sapphire, the idea of Black inferiority. “Good whites” don’t get it. They can not understand these supremacists… some allies deny that they can be as numerous. Or try to tell us that these people are “ignorant.” And need “education.” We have had fifty-five years of education. As a university faculty member, I can say that people only learn when they want to learn.  You can not force people to believe anything. Decades of research show that many people will believe what they want to believe, discard evidence contrary to their beliefs, and  condescend to those who actually are experts. 

I come to this Juneteenth with mixed emotions. I have witnessed a supremacist and opportunist uprising on my TV. I read supremacist, racist comments in my local newspaper and TC comment sections. I see videos of emboldened racists. I see people writing long screeds to defend a Lost Cause mythology long debunked by historians. I see that racial propaganda is hugely effective within the unregulated sphere of the Internet. It makes me fear for my family’s safety. 

Yet I am called to fight anyway by the memory of Juneteenth. I helped integrate schools. My husband was bused to integrate schools. Jim Crow was only abolished by law in 1965, fifty five years ago, and in practice, laws for equality were and are rarely enforced. Too often today, the racists are protected by powerful, monied interests who keep their riches by dividing us by race, and preying on the fears of the prejudiced. 

My ancestors fought in that Civil War, and in other wars, for the promise of this country. They marched, boycotted and sat in. They resisted and persisted. They are my legacy, Black history is my wealth in a country that legally and illegally denies marginalized people monetary wealth in many ways. Juneteenth is their wisdom of the ages. Juneteenth will sustain us and keep us. Some Black people will grow tired and give in. The rest of us, with our allies of many races, will continue to fight for the enforcement of equal rights for all.

A new generation arises. And this generation embodies the spirit of the Black and White soldiers of the Massachusetts 54th and the Louisiana 16th, and many others. This new generation has no patience for excuses. They are the New Abolitionists of the Third Reconstruction. They work with my generation to lead us. We are many races. This new generation has many races in it. This generation, born of this pain, takes up the unfinished work of Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement.  

Juneteenth is hope. It is the hope that we can work together. It is the hope that we can dismantle this racism. It is the determination to rid America of the original sins of stereotyping, racist complacency, and institutional racism. It is the song we sing, the prayer we chant, the air we breathe. 

We rise. We survive. We will win. We will create King’s Beloved Community from the ashes of the new Jim Crow. We are Juneteenth. 

Collaborating Writers

12 responses to “Juneteenth in the Age of George Floyd”

  1. Jessie Lee Avatar
    Jessie Lee

    *Cross posted from facebook* I was struck by these words: “Black history is my wealth in a country that legally and illegally denies marginalized people monetary wealth in many ways. Juneteenth is their wisdom of the ages.” They reminded me of something Ruby Sales said about how our distancing from history is a tool of oppression: “The less history matters, the more the empire gets away with not being responsible for the history they’ve created.” I didn’t learn about Juneteenth (at least in a way I can recall) until this year. There was a time where becoming aware of this erasure would have shocked me. It doesn’t anymore, which I take as a sign of progress and a call to keep going. There’s still so far to go, as Dr. Duckworth-Lawton points out painfully in the statement that she fears for her family’s safety and the question “How is it that “people can watch a man die, and deny his humanity because of the color of his skin and the mythology of the coon?” I think the answer lies in how ingrained the erasure of history is for white people, and how addicting it is to distance ourselves from racism; it’s so easy to point out the racism in others self-righteously while ignoring it completely in ourselves.

    This article stirs in me the “good shame.” These words give me hope that we all have it in us to learn from the past so we can write a new history for all of our children.

  2. Tonya S. Avatar
    Tonya S.

    I was shocked how many white people, some of whom are out there protesting, were completely unaware of Juneteenth. Many white people are getting more actively involved, and I hope it continues and does not fall away with the next news cycles. We white people all need to do more and learn more about what else we have not been taught in our History classes.

  3. Christin Spoolstra Avatar
    Christin Spoolstra

    This contrast between the two is really interesting. I wonder if the vast gulf of celebration/recognition is because Black History Month is more white controlled whereas white people haven’t really engaged/participated in Juneteenth?

  4. Christin Spoolstra Avatar
    Christin Spoolstra

    Juneteenth is hope…. I want so much for that to be true. I smiled when Mr Coates said in an interview a couple weeks ago that he was hopeful. I smiled again when I saw it here. But I am also viscerally aware of how hope is weaponized against the black community in this movement. I have seen how the hopeful belief of ‘it’s already better!’ is used to shut down black voices. I want hope to push us forward and not to slow us down. I won’t slow.

  5. Varda L Avatar
    Varda L

    Dr Lawton’s words make me reflect on the difference between what Juneteenth is and what Black History month has become.

    Juneteenth flew under the radar of white gaze and white intentions. It remains a time when experts, like Dr Lawton, can reflect on history, current events, and her imagined future. She vividly describe the space she inhabits in each context: her ancestors, her work, her fears for her family, her hope. The context she brings to this day shows how the exceptional heroes and events we learn about in February serve to disconnect white people from the day to day reality of racial justice.

    By laying her celebration of the day, she asks me to reflect and engage from my personal relationship to our country’s racial history: increasing my knowledge, re-engaging in my work, repairing what my ancestors have hurt, my duty to bring up my children in this work.

  6. Rebecca McClinton Avatar
    Rebecca McClinton

    Hoping to hear more from Dr. Ducksworth-Lawton! I find myself in her words (a) in proclamations of Liberty and justice for all, and cry thinking how often I’ve recited those words when it’s really been a perfect example of “all lives is fiction”. (b) I find myself in micro-aggressions which are really “cover covert racism” and self aggrandizement. (c) I find myself in education and “only learning when I want to learn,” which is shamefully only fairly recently. (d) how truly little I know about resilience, how meager my own experience of it, (e) and hope, the beauty of hope and the gift to be included in it.

  7. Renee Avatar
    Renee

    Thank you for this piece. One of the statements that stood out to me the most was ‘We interrogate how an alleged pro-life movement deems some lives less worthy of protection because of “responsibility” and “moral hazard” … and yet have the nerve to claim that All Lives Matter.’ This hypocrisy is something that I have witnessed and do not understand. Old white men who will harass women going into clinics for healthcare, maybe an abortion, maybe cancer screenings or birth control, but none of their business either way, but then these same people don’t want to protect brown and black bodies once they’re on the outside. I have volunteered at a clinic in Baltimore as an escort to help women pass these people who harass them and call themselves protesters. The ‘protesters’ will attempt to appeal to Black patients by saying that what the clinic is doing is racist and genocide . They pretend to value Black lives but then miss the point with the All Lives Matter.

    Another piece that stood out to me was the idea of ‘good whites not getting it’ and thinking that ‘education’ is what will fix it. I’ve been guilty of thinking this – well if only I can give them facts (I believe I mentioned this in an earlier comment on a different post on LoR) they will see. While I do want to be more informed myself and also to be able to correct misinformation, I need to remember that these facts won’t change a person’s mind. You shouldn’t have to ‘teach’ someone to love, respect, and protect human beings.

    I will continue to fight with the other walkers here and with you.

  8. Renee Avatar
    Renee

    Several of your comments resonated with me. The question of ‘why did Juneteenth not become a cause for white celebration too?’ And the idea of humility accompanying that. I can’t remember where I heard/saw this, but I came across commentary by a German politician who was saying that they were abstaining from a certain decision b/c of Germany’s role in the Holocaust. He was pointing out that it happened, that it was shameful, and has impact on the present. Americans instead cover up, whitewash, pretend slavery didn’t happen. It could be a poignant moment to reflect on how slavery happened, was sustained, and how to make sure that we dismantle the racism that continues in the present. But instead we deny.

    The other thing that stood out to me was “We make antiracism about convincing White supremacists that they’re wrong, and not about making things right for black people.” I hadn’t thought of this and it’s so true. We get caught in a power struggle, maybe our ego’s involved, with the person we are trying to convince. But you’re right, we’re not spending that same time and energy into making things right for Black people. We want to say how wrong slavery was/is and don’t support reparations or invest in schools. Thank you for your thoughtful comments.

  9. Alexander Lucas Avatar
    Alexander Lucas

    What I find so paradoxical is that we in the white community are more aware of Juneteenth because of its proximity to the George Floyd murder and subsequent movement and protest. It is remarkable the level of unfamiliarity with the holiday even after the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and so many other over the last decade.

    And yet businesses are jumping to show both how woke they are by making mention of BLM and Juneteenth and how tone-deaf they are with sales at liquor stores and donations for wholly unrelated causes.

    I like that there is such a new awareness and an actual knowledge of historical events such as Juneteenth and the Tulsa Race Riots, but it seems so twisted that it is at this cost. I try to choke down my cynicism and pessimism that this is just one more slacktivist, performatory online fad.

    But what I do find compelling in Dr. Lawton’s essay is the simple line “Juneteenth is Hope. it is the hope that we can work together.”

    There are enough people in this country to coalesce around this hope. There was hope on September 12, when we all grieved together. I found a great swell of hope when then Sen. Obama made his speech at the Democratic National Convention. And I still feel hope watching many thousands of protesters in the streets donning masks, risking potential infection from COVID and retaliation from police and counter protesters.

    I hope that in this national mood we can make Juneteenth a national holiday to make it a more common conversation piece.

  10. Rhonda Eldridge Avatar
    Rhonda Eldridge

    I am honored to follow.

  11. Christina Sonas Avatar
    Christina Sonas

    [cross-posted from FB]

    I am grateful for the opportunity to experience Dr. Lawton’s essay for and about Juneteenth 2020. Her testimony to the black struggle against White supremacy, past, present, and future, is one I am committed to serve in whatever ways I am needed.

    One thing I understand so clearly and deeply after reading this piece is that, although I and many White people claim to be “with” black people, we continually prioritize the rights of White supremacy over them. We say that First and Second Amendment rights and police unions are more important than black and brown lives. We say that White property taxes are more important than schools that create real equity for black and brown children. We say that archaic political systems designed and established 231 years ago to directly enforce White power and black enslavement are more important than black voting rights and representation. We make antiracism about convincing White supremacists that they’re wrong, and not about making things right for black people.

    I feel the disgrace that Juneteenth, that Emancipation, did not also become a White reason for celebration: the end of enslavement, the start of a new era of humanity for White people, a monumental shift for Whiteness. Instead, we immediately set about doing our damnedest to make Emancipation irrelevant, and we continue to disrupt, deny, steal, and murder Blackness to this day. (“Black history is my wealth” – and White people don’t like black people having anything, so we steal their history too.)

    I’m not going to steal this cornerstone black holiday today, and I will call out the many White people I see doing so, sharing recipes for strawberry lemonade and red velvet cake. Juneteenth 2020 is not an opportunity for White people to add a new food day to their annual calendar. For White people like me, who are “with” black people, it needs to be a day of contemplation and action, with every following day one of wrestling with ourselves and others about who we really are, who we want to be, and how to make it real.

  12. cheryl harris Avatar
    cheryl harris

    What a powerful post. Especially appreciate the points on education, and people only learning when they are ready. I am so sorry you’ve had to fear for your family’s safety, then and still.

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