Racial Justice Ministries and Join the Movement toward Racial Justice invite you to honor and celebrate Juneteenth this year by remembering and discovering the healing practices that sustained freedom in the bones of our ancestors, before and after emancipation. Through music and prayer, poetry and art, reflection, and ritual, may we find a medicine bundle, a libation, a Brush Harbor and a clearing, a poultice that teaches us the sound of freedom, echoing from legacies of healing and singing futures of wholeness.
“On “Freedom’s Eve,” or the eve of January 1, 1863, the first Watch Night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. At the stroke of midnight, prayers were answered as all enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free. Union soldiers, many of whom were black, marched onto plantations and across cities in the south reading small copies of the Emancipation Proclamation spreading the news of freedom in Confederate States. Only through the Thirteenth Amendment did emancipation end slavery throughout the United States.”
Explore the rich historical legacy of Juneteenth. Deepen practices of restorative healing. Listen and learn from educators, organizers, activists, and next generation leaders. Remember, God is still Speaking!