Celebrating freedom

This year will be the first year we’ll be celebrating Juneteenth as an official state holiday, thanks to the passage of SB 22. Senator Elvi Gray-Jackson, the bill’s sponsor, said during debate on the bill, “Alaska, like many states in this country, has a diverse population with a rich cultural heritage. It’s a place where people of all backgrounds and beliefs come together to celebrate their shared values of freedom, equality and justice. By recognizing Juneteenth as a state holiday, we can celebrate and honor our African American community’s contributions and acknowledge the injustices they have faced in our state and in our nation.”

So this Juneteenth, we aim to celebrate the freedom, equality, and justice that have been won through the persistent and strategic organizing of previous and current generations of Black organizers, but also to remember that this work is not over, and that it is absolutely a part of our movement. We must have justice in our climate movement, and that means listening to the frontline communities who are already being most impacted. And we also know that our fight is for a livable planet - which means not just the climate, but also the systems that are killing Black people - livable in every sense of the word. Lastly - we will not win the kind of change we need without the experience and wisdom of the Black leaders and organizers who for years, have been studying and practicing freedom, and imagining and building new worlds that have previously not existed.

So this weekend, we celebrate those who have been dreaming of, and fighting for freedom and a livable world for decades, and we recommit to building that world together, and fighting the systems that are not livable.