June Freedom, Family, Pride, and Living History
Global Black Caucus Community Drum Beat
Top 3 Calls to → Action
- 🗳️ Go to votefromabroad.org to register to vote, request your ballot, or help another overseas voter get sorted.
- 📽️ Get the information from this link on what to say, how to record and submit your Get Out The Vote video. Recruit others. Need inspiration? Here’s another one from me.
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🗓️ Check our online June events on our website, and invite others.
Freedom remembered
Celebration of the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia by the colored people, in Washington, April 19, 1866 / sketched by F. Dielman.
June tells the truth clearly. Juneteenth is not simply “the day slavery ended.” It marks June 19, 1865, when Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and issued General Order No. 3, informing enslaved Black people in Texas that they were free. This was more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and the legal end of slavery in the United States was not fully realized until the 13th Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865.
Juneteenth is joy, yes. It is also a reminder that freedom delayed is freedom denied – even in the 21st Century.
Legacy Built
Obama center under construction 2025 obama.org
This Juneteenth also brings a new place to carry our history forward. The Obama Presidential Center Museum opens in Chicago on June 19, 2026. The campus itself is free and open to the public, while the Museum requires timed tickets. The opening ceremony will be livestreamed (like the Olympics!). This is required viewing. Visit the Center’s website.
Pride Honored
Marsha P. Johnson, Black gay liberation activist and one of the most visible figures of the Stonewall era. Photo By Hank O'Neal
June is also Pride Month, and Black history belongs there too. Marsha P. Johnson, a Black gay liberation activist and self identified drag queen, was one of the most visible participants in the Stonewall uprising. After Stonewall, she joined the Gay Liberation Front and ACT UP, and cofounded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries with Sylvia Rivera to support trans and queer people facing poverty, housing insecurity, and exclusion.
Her legacy reminds us that movements are strongest when the people pushed to the margins are asked to wait their turn. Afro-Latina Mariah Lopez is one example of those fighting to carry this legacy forward today.
Family Gathered
11th Annual Smithsonian Black Family Reunion on the National Mall in Washington DC on 7 September 1996 by Elvert Xavier Barnes Photography
We also honor Black family reunions as a powerful tradition of remembrance, repair, and belonging. After slavery separated parents, children, spouses, and kin, reunions became a way to rebuild family lines, pass down stories, share food, name ancestors, and teach younger generations where they come from.
In 1986, Dr. Dorothy I. Height and the National Council of Negro Women launched the National Black Family Reunion, including gatherings on the National Mall in Washington, DC, to challenge harmful narratives about Black families and celebrate our strength. Today, that spirit continues in new forms, including The Family Reunion, the DC rooted food and culture gathering presented by Chef Kwame Onwuachi with Salamander Collection and Food & Wine.
June gives us many doors into the same truth: Black freedom has always required memory, movement, family, culture, and courage. This month, may we celebrate with open eyes and steady purpose.
In solidarity,
Adrianne George
2016-2024 DNC Member
Global Black Caucus GOTV Lead
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