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—June 2022—

On the meaning of Juneteenth

by Rabbi Nancy Kasten
Last year, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, making a holiday that originated in Galveston in 1866 into a federal observance. The holiday is called Emancipation Day in Texas because it marks the end of legal bondage of black people in the last state in the union with institutional slavery.

Texas was not the only place where slavery continued after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. It just held on the longest. Slaves were not emancipated in Texas because Texans realized they should be treated as equals; they were emancipated because their owners lost a war.

When we see the gaping discrepancies between Texans of color and white Texans in areas including (but not limited to) health and wellness, educational achievement, employment opportunities, home ownership, income, and inherited wealth, it is clear that manumission does not demand respect for the humanity and dignity of all people.

Likewise, making Juneteenth a federal holiday does not compel our legislatures to change policies that continue to enable a small minority of people to thrive at the expense of the majority. Juneteenth is not only a chance to celebrate the emancipated that took place on a June day in 1865. It is a reminder that it is up to every one of us to make that freedom mean something, every day, by resisting the human inclination to be slaves and to enslave.

At the Passover seder, Jews recite these words: “In every generation a person must see themselves as if they themselves had gone forth out of Egypt.” We may not have been a slave or a slaveowner in this country before emancipation. But that does not mean we are absolved from responsibility for the kind of slavery that persists wherever we are, in every age.

As President Biden said in his remarks last year, “…the promise of equality is not going to be fulfilled until… it becomes real in our schools and on our Main Streets and in our neighborhoods—our healthcare system and ensuring that equity is at the heart of our fight against the pandemic; in the water that comes out of our faucets and the air that we breathe in our communities; in our justice system—so that we can fulfill the promise of America for all people. All of our people…We can’t rest until the promise of equality is fulfilled for every one of us in every corner of this nation. That, to me, is the meaning of Juneteenth. That’s what it’s about.”

Resources & References

Coming Up

Public Lecture and Workshop with Valarie Kaur

We are excited to announce that our two-part event with Valarie Kaur has been rescheduled for September 8 & 9!

Valarie Kaur will speak about her experience as an activist, a mother and a Sikh American and how to use tools of revolutionary love.

Public Lecture & Book Signing
Thursday, September 8, 2022
7:30 - 9:00 p.m. Central
at the Dallas Holocaust & Human Rights Museum
Tickets: $15

Valarie Kaur will be coming to Dallas to teach us and inspire us toward revolutionary love.

Ms. Kaur is a renowned civil rights leader, lawyer, award-winning filmmaker, educator, innovator, and best-selling author of SEE NO STRANGER. She leads the Revolutionary Love Project to reclaim love as a force for justice. Valarie burst into American consciousness in the wake of the 2016 election when her Watch Night Service address went viral with 40 million views worldwide. Her question “Is this the darkness of the tomb – or the darkness of the womb?” reframed the political moment and became a mantra for people fighting for change.

This lecture event—to include a book signing—is open to the public.
Purchase Tickets

Intensive Workshop
Friday, September 9, 2022
11:00 a.m. Central
at Paul Quinn College in the Grand Lounge
Tickets: $250

The following day, September 9, Ms. Kaur will lead us in an intensive workshop. Tickets for this workshop are $250, and can be purchased here when you click on "Tickets." A copy of See No Stranger is included with this ticket purchase, as well as a box lunch. The workshop is being held September 9 at 11:00 a.m. at Paul Quinn College in the Grand Lounge.
Purchase Tickets

Event Sponsors
The presenting sponsor is Faith Commons, and the following are partnering sponsors: Brenda Brand | Steve and Gail Brookshire | The DFW Sikh Community | Lauren Embry | Empire Bakery/Meaders and Robert Ozarow | Faith Forward Dallas | Fellowship Southwest | First United Methodist Church | Friendship West Baptist Church | Rev. Amy and Dr. David Moore | National Council of Jewish Women Greater Dallas | North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church | Sarah and Lee Papert | Pathways to Ministry | People Newspapers | Retreat House Spirituality Center | SMU Baptist House of Studies | SMU Human Rights Program | SMU Maguire Center for Ethics | SMU Perkins School of Theology | Temple Emanu-El | Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation | Thanksgiving Square Foundation | Wilshire Baptist Church

To become a sponsor, please email Rabbi Nancy Kasten at nancy@faithcommons.org.

"See No Stranger" Book Study with Retreat House
Wednesday, June 15
12:00 - 1:30 p.m. Central

Starting this Wednesday, June 15 and extending through the summer, Retreat House, one of our event co-sponsors, will facilitate a See No Stranger book study—available in person and online.

If you attend in person, soup and bread will be served.

More details here.

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