In 1865, Black people all over the South were saying this Union officials: Do not abolish slavery and leave us landless and disenfranchised. Do not force us to
work for our former masters and call that freedom. Do not allow the law replace the master. 1/3

Do not call us free if we are still enslaved by racism. They distinguished between abolishing slavery and freeing people. In offering postwar policy, Black people were rewriting what it meant to be free. 2/3

On this #Juneteenth , 155 years later, Americans are celebrating the abolition of slavery. But Black people are not celebrating as if we are free.
Chattel slavery is no more. But the descendants of enslaved people are still not free. 3/3