On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass stood before an abolitionist audience in Rochester, New York, and delivered one of the most searing speeches in American history. Invited to give a Fourth of July oration, Douglass instead used the occasion to confront his audience with an uncomfortable truth: the freedom being…
Tag: Juneteenth
Edutainment
Is Evanston’s Reparations Program Legal? Madiba Dennie Breaks It Down on Freedman Friday
On Juneteenth 2026, the Trump administration did not celebrate. It intervened. The Department of Justice — under Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — filed to join a lawsuit aimed at shutting down the Evanston, Illinois reparations program, the first municipal reparations program in American history. The timing was not lost…
Freedmen
Michigan Lawmakers Introduce Reparative Justice Package on Eve of Juneteenth 2026
On the eve of Juneteenth 2026, members of the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus, community advocates, and descendants of the enslaved gathered in Lansing to announce something that rarely happens in statehouses anymore: a serious, specific, legislative response to the unfinished business of American freedom. The package does not promise reparations…
Juneteenth
Marc Lamont Hill Office Hours: Dr. Roger Davidson on Juneteenth, the Civil War, and What Freedom Actually Means
Marc Lamont Hill hosted historian and Bowie State University Associate Professor Dr. Roger A. Davidson Jr. for an Office Hours deep dive into the history America oversimplifies every time it goes on sale at Target. The conversation ranged from the military mechanics of how emancipation actually happened, to Lincoln’s real…
African Union
Juneteenth in Accra: African Union Declares Decade of Reparations and Joint Juneteenth Observance at Next Steps 2026
Less than three months after 123 nations voted yes on UN Resolution A/RES/80/250 — recognizing the trafficking of enslaved Africans as among the gravest crimes against humanity — world leaders converged on Accra, Ghana for the Next Steps 2026 High-Level Consultative Conference. Hosted by President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana,…
Juneteenth
Juneteenth Spurs New Jersey Reparations Push as Advocates Press for Repair
As Juneteenth celebrations unfold, New Jersey advocates including Jean-Pierre Brutus are pushing reparations back into the spotlight. NJ Spotlight News reports on the statewide and national fight for repair. Five years after Juneteenth became a federal holiday, New Jersey advocates are using the anniversary to press for reparations at the…
Podcast
Reparations Is Not Too Hard: Aria Florant on the Case for Repair
Public support for reparations currently stands at 36% — about 9 percentage points higher than support for marriage equality when that movement coalesced. Yet most people who support reparations think they are alone. Aria Florant, co-founder and CEO of Liberation Ventures, joined Glen Galaich and Malila Becton-Consuegra on the Stupski…
CARICOM
Africa’s Reparations Commissions Hold First Joint Meeting as AU-CARICOM Partnership Deepens.
For the first time in history, the CARICOM Reparations Commission and the two reparations commissions established by the African Union sat down together. What came out of that meeting is a coordinated, cross-continental strategy to take the reparations demand to the United Nations — backed by a voting bloc…
Illinois Reparations Commission
The DOJ Is Moving Against Evanston’s Reparations Program by using the 14th Amendment and the Fair Housing Act.
The first municipal reparations program in United States history is under legal challenge. The Trump administration’s Department of Justice — through its Civil Rights Division — has moved to intervene in a lawsuit challenging Evanston, Illinois’ Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program. The DOJ argues that directing housing assistance and…