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“Words of Emancipation didn't arrive until the middle of June so they called it Juneteenth. So that was it, the night of Juneteenth celebration, his mind went on. The celebration of a gaudy illusion.”
― Ralph Ellison, Juneteenth

“It's the little things that find us out, the little things we refuse to do in order to avoid doing the big things that can save us.”
― Ralph Ellision

“The practice of alchemizing suffering into meaningful art as well as social and political advancements has been one of African Americansâ€� greatest gifts to humanity. Many have followed their lead in this regard and that practice can make a lot of positive difference during this time of renewal and re-weaving.”
― Aberjhani, These Black and Blue Red Zone Days

“It’s not just a matter of having lost the land and the wealth that came with it. It’s a matter of the fact that we lost a way of life that we should have been able to pass on to our children and to their children, but which we can’t because of what was taken from us. (Harris Neck, Georgia native Wilson Moran as quoted by Aberjhani in The American Poet Who Went Home Again)”
― Aberjhani, The American Poet Who Went Home Again

“So now they're shaking in their boots and looking for someone to give them the answer they want to hear. Not the truth, but some lie that will protect them from the truth”
― Ralph Ellision

“For white Americans (whiteness itself a societal construct that has changed in it definition over time), this new national holiday of Juneteenth, this day off from work, should be like an American Yom Kippur, a Day of Atonement, a day of reflection, a day to keep learning more about how we have failed as a society to live up to our ideals, and what we as individuals can do to make it better, more real, closer to our vision of justice and liberty, a vision that our founding forefathers could not even imagine.

'Do better' should be what all who carry any kind of privilege in this society should say to ourselves and to each other - what can we do, what can you do, to 'do better'?”
― Shellen Lubin

“A display cake read JUNETEENTH! in red frosting, surrounded by red, white, and blue stars and fireworks. A flyer taped to the counter above it encouraged patrons to consider ordering a Juneteenth cake early: We all know about the Fourth of July! the flyer said. But why not start celebrating freedom a few weeks early and observe the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation! Say it with cake! One of the two young women behind the bakery counter was Black, but I could guess the bakery's owner wasn't. The neighborhood, the prices, the twee acoustic music drifting out of sleek speakers: I knew all of the song's words, but everything about the space said who it was for. My memories of celebrating Juneteenth in DC were my parents taking me to someone's backyard BBQ, eating banana pudding and peach cobbler and strawberry cake made with Jell-O mix; at not one of them had I seen a seventy-five-dollar bakery cake that could be carved into the shape of a designer handbag for an additional fee. The flyer's sales pitch--so much hanging on that We all know--was targeted not to the people who'd celebrated Juneteenth all along but to office managers who'd feel hectored into not missing a Black holiday or who just wanted an excuse for miscellaneous dessert.”
― Danielle Evans, The Office of Historical Corrections

“Amidst the illusive fog of color and geography,
When did humanity cease mattering most!
Sentiments and dreams have no borders,
Character isn't exclusive to any single coast.”
― Abhijit Naskar, No Foreigner Only Family

“The Juneteenth Sonnet

Once upon a time but not long ago,
They brought us to America in chains.
Thinking of themselves as superior race,
White barbarians kept us as slaves.
But the sapling of humanity found a way,
To break those chains causing ascension.
Whites and blacks all stood up together,
And lighted the torch of emancipation.
Juneteenth is now declared holiday,
Yet to some it feels like a critical dishonor.
The human race comes from a black mother,
Yet they treat people of color as inferior.
The America handed to us is far from civilized.
But together we'll make our home humanized.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Hometown Human: To Live for Soil and Society

“When you come down to the ground of humanity from your pedestal of intellect, then you realize that though white Americans received independence from British occupation on July 4th, 1776, it meant nothing as to the fate of the Black Americans, for they still continued to suffer as slaves officially until the declaration of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st 1863, and somewhat unofficially till Juneteenth, that is, June 19th, 1866. I say somewhat unofficially because, it ought to be clear to anybody with half a brain by now that, slavery didn’t actually end either with Emancipation Proclamation or on Juneteenth, it morphed into racism.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Hometown Human: To Live for Soil and Society

“I thought about how Juneteenth is a holiday that inspires so much celebration, born from circumstances imbued with so much tragedy. Enslavers in Texas, and across the South, attempted to keep Black people in bondage for months, and theoretically years, after their freedom had been granted. Juneteenth, then, is both a day to solemnly remember what this country has done to Black Americans and a day to celebrate all that Black Americans have overcome. It is a reminder that each day this country must consciously make a decision to move toward freedom for all of its citizens, and that this is something that must be done proactively; it will not happen on its own. The project of freedom, Juneteenth reminds us, is precarious, and we should regularly remind ourselves how many people who came before us never got to experience it, and how many people there are still waiting.”
― Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

“On the day God said, “Let there be lightâ€�, he had Juneteenth in mind.”
― Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

“You know what Black means? BLACK means Brave, BLACK means Leaderly, BLACK means Adventurous, BLACK means Considerate, BLACK means Kind.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Bulldozer on Duty

“BLACK is Brave, Leaderly, Adventurous, Conscientious and KINGly.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Azad Earth Army: When The World Cries Blood