Today on Sojourner Truth, our annual Juneteenth special.
Since 1865, when enslaved people in Texas finally got the news that the Emancipation Proclamation was signed three years prior, Black people took the holiday, Black Freedom Day, to other cities and towns where they settled. Now, as a result of the massive protests against police killings and racism across the United States, Juneteenth has been given a new focus and meaning, including by some who previously ignored it or didn't know about it.
Despite Donald Trump's claim that people found out about Juneteenth because of him, it was the persistence of Black people's continued fight for our freedom that more people in the United States, including in the corporate world, are paying attention to this year's Juneteenth. Today, we dig deep into the significance of Juneteenth, as a day to mark the continued resistance of Black people to our oppression and what must be done, including the growing calls for reparations.
Our guests are Dorothy Roberts, Ash-Lee Henderson and Dr. Gerald Horne.
Dorothy Roberts is the George A. Weiss University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, with joint appointments in the Departments of Africana Studies and Sociology and the Law School, where she is the inaugural Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights.
Ash-Lee Henderson is an Affrilachian (Black Appalachian), working class womyn, born and raised in Southeast Tennessee. She is the first Black woman to serve as the co-executive director of the Highlander Research and Education Center and is an active participant in the Movement for Black Lives.
Dr. Gerald Horne, Moores Professor of History & African-American Studies at the University of Houston, has written more than 30 books. His most recently published book is The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century, published in June 2020.
