JUNE 19, 2024

Today our nation marks Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when news of the Emancipation Proclamation reached Galveston, TX and Union Major General Gordon Granger announced the end of slavery.  Apparently good news didn’t travel fast, because President Lincoln had initially signed the proclamation in January 1863. This means that for two plus years enslaved women, men, and children, who were meant to be living lives of liberation weren’t able to do so.  And that sounds too familiar to us today as we work to disrupt a state far too comfortable with a high level of inequity, injustice and oppression.

The Proclamation impacted the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist Confederate states, but in time the institution of enslavement was simply replaced by other segregationist systems, one of which was known as Jim Crow. Others remain in place today such as an overcrowded prison industrial complex, the result of inequitable sentencing guidelines. And this transition from one form of enslavement to another was not restricted to the Southern U.S.. It was, and remains, alive and well across the country, including right here in Massachusetts where the progressiveness we name and claim is often wrapped in privilege. 

So yes, we remember the joy of liberation felt by those previously enslaved souls in Texas in 1865 for whom this day was one of celebration, while we simultaneously work to dismantle the systems rooted in this nation’s cornerstones of white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy, and imperial christianity. 

MCAN’s work across eight affiliates digs deep across issues of housing, voter engagement, education, community policing, criminal justice reform, immigration, and building a beloved economy. Our work is led by those closest to the issues who receive support and training to step into their power. Within our network, we use the tagline “until we all are free.” When we talk about liberation, we aren’t just talking about it for some of us. We are working for it for all of us. 

We invite you to step into your power and liberation journey with us.  There are two days left in our Spring Appeal to raise critical funding to continue the work. And we don’t just invite you to make an investment; we invite you into a relationship. On the same page, let us know how you would like to learn more about this work and what experience and expertise you have to share with our organizers and leaders.  You too can step into your power to work for a state and nation where each of us is truly free.  

In partnership,
Janine & William

Janine Carreiro
William Dickerson II 
MCAN Co-Executive Directors