This is the first full year that Juneteenth National Independence Day has been a federally recognized holiday. I had heard of the celebrations only a handful of years before this declaration by President Biden, and I think I speak for many when I say it’s about time.

We’re not free until we’re all free.

It’s important on this day (and throughout the year) to not only celebrate and commemorate the freeing of all the enslaved people after the Civil War, but also to look at how we can be proactive and ally ourselves in the fight for modern freedom. That is recognizing the disparities that still exist and acknowledging that they’ve always been there, and they were written into the system, Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution themselves. We must recognize this.

NPR article about Juneteenth. Check out the Google Doodle also!

Below is my replica of the Juneteenth flag, designed by Ben Haith and Lisa Jeanne Graf.