Juneteenth is often taught as the day slavery was abolished—a day of freedom and joy. In school, we’re told that Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and that was that. But the truth is far more complicated.

To truly understand Juneteenth, we have to go back to the Civil War and examine the reality on the ground.

You might think that once enslaved people were declared free, they would immediately leave the plantations. While some did, many others stayed—some because they didn’t even know they were free, and others because they had no resources, nowhere to go, or were simply afraid.

It’s heartbreaking to realize that many enslaved people were born into slavery and deliberately kept from learning to read or write. Their minds were shaped by a system designed to keep them submissive and uneducated.

In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Mr. Auld, a slave owner, says:  “if you give a n*** an inch, he will take an ell. A n*** should know nothing but to obey his master to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best n*** in the world.” 

This disturbing quote reveals the mindset of many slave owners at the time. With this in mind, ask yourself: did those slave owners truly respect the Emancipation Proclamation? Did they inform the enslaved people of their rights and freedom?

In some rare cases, formerly enslaved people negotiated paid work with their former masters. But after a lifetime of being broken down mentally, emotionally, and physically—how could someone truly understand and embrace freedom they had never known?

Juneteenth is not about celebration—it’s about reflection. It reminds us of how far we've come, but also how deeply slavery impacted generations of people. To honor Juneteenth is to acknowledge both the joy of liberation and the painful truth of what that liberation actually looked like.

Slavery hasn’t ended—it’s just evolved. Today, it lives behind the concrete walls of America’s prison system, where many incarcerated individuals—disproportionately Black—are trapped in a system built on punishment, not justice.

Many of these people are wrongfully convicted or handed extreme sentences for minor, non-violent offenses. Once inside, they are stripped of rights, dignity, and in many cases, used as cheap or unpaid labor—serving a sentence that echoes the oppression of slavery.

To those who say, “Commit the crime, do the time,” ask yourself this: Do you truly believe that 15% of the U.S. population commits nearly 100% of the crime?

Is it just a coincidence that African Americans are incarcerated at five times the rate of white Americans? Is that justice—or is it by design?

Mass incarceration didn’t happen by accident. It's part of a legacy—rooted in racism, sustained by profit, and justified by myths.

Open your eyes