Six on History: Black History is Every Month
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"When Richard and Mildred Loving awoke in the middle of the night a few weeks after their June, 1958 wedding, it wasn't normal newlywed ardor. There were policemen with flashlights in their bedroom. They'd come to arrest the couple.
"They asked Richard who was that woman he was sleeping with? I say, I'm his wife, and the sheriff said, not here you're not. And they said, come on, let's go, Mildred Loving recalled that night in the HBO documentary The Loving Story.
The Lovings had committed what Virginia called unlawful cohabitation. Their marriage was deemed illegal because Mildred was Black and Native American; and Richard was white.
Their case went all the way to the Supreme Court. And on June 12, 1967, the couple won.
Now, each year on this date, "Loving Day" celebrates the historic ruling in Loving v. Virginia, which declared unconstitutional a Virginia law prohibiting mixed-race marriage — and legalized interracial marriage in every state.
After they were arrested, the Lovings were sentenced to a year in prison. Then, a judge offered them a choice: banishment from the state or prison.
They chose to leave Virginia at the time, but after several years, the Lovings asked the American Civil Liberties Union to take their case.
Bernard Cohen and Philip Hirschkop, two young ACLU lawyers at the time, did.
The ACLU takes up their caseThe lawyers asked the court to look closely at whether the Virginia law violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. If the framers had intended to exclude anti-miscegenation status in the 14th Amendment, which assures equal protection under the law, they argued that it would have been easy for them to write a phrase excluding interracial marriage, but they didn't Cohen argued:
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"The language was broad, the language was sweeping. The language meant to include equal protection for Negroes that was at the very heart of it and that equal protection included the right to marry as any other human being had the right to marry subject to only the same limitations."
Cohen forcefully, but calmly argued that the Lovings and their children, just like any other family, had the right to feel protected under the law.
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"And that is the right of Richard and Mildred Loving to wake up in the morning or to go to sleep at night knowing that the sheriff will not be knocking on their door or shining a light in their face in the privacy of their bedroom for illicit co-habitation."
When asked if he had a message for the justices, the normally-quiet Richard did: Tell them I love my wife, he said.
The court makes a landmark rulingOn June 12, 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court justices ruled in the Lovings' favor. The unanimous decision upheld that distinctions drawn based on race were not constitutional. The court's decision made it clear that Virginia's anti-miscegenation law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The landmark civil rights decision declared prohibitions on interracial marriage unconstitutional in the nation.
Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the opinion for the court; he wrote that marriage is a basic civil right and to deny this right on a basis of color is "directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment" and seizes all citizens "liberty without due process of law."
In recent years, people around the country have commemorated the ruling with Loving Day celebrations.
Today, it has evolved into an observation of the larger struggle for racial justice."
"America continues to reckon with how to commemorate Juneteenth, the bittersweet holiday honoring the belated emancipation date of enslaved people on June 19, 1865. This year, The Smithsonian Channel is choosing to commemorate the date with a slate of thought-provoking original programming on its linear and digital platforms, starting with a series of original video essays from some of the most inspiring voices in American letters.
The Smithsonian Channel today announced a series of powerful original video essays to commemorate Juneteenth, honoring the emancipation of the last remaining enslaved African Americans in the Confederacy on June 19, 1865. The essays are from prominent and emerging writers, artists, activists, community leaders and teachers reflecting on Juneteenth and how this consequential moment in American history deeply resonates today.
Per Smithsonian, the series was executive produced by Elissa Rubin, Dane Joseph and James Blue. Essayists include:
- Associate Director of the Edmund Gordon Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, Christopher Emdin, also author of the New York Times bestseller, For White Folks Who Teach In The Hood.. and the Rest of Y’all Too and the upcoming Ratchetdemic: Reimagining Academic Success.
- National Book Award Finalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds, author of Miles Morales: Spider Man, Look Both Ways, and a collaboration with Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, among others. Reynolds is the 2020-2021 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.
- YA novelist Nic Stone, author of New York Times bestsellers Dear Martin, Dear Justyce and Clean Getaway, as well as the Black Panther novels Shuri and Shuri: The Vanished, among others.
- Grammy-nominated, Indigenous Music award winning artist Maimouna Youssef aka Mumu Fresh, also a Musical Ambassador for the US State Department, an elected governor of The DC Chapter of The Recording Academy and an Ambassador of The Black Music Collective.
Emdin, Reynolds, and Youssef’s essays will all air on the Smithsonian Channel, with the full slate, which also includes educator-author-producer Yaba Blay, sociologist and author Crystal Fleming, and B2B software company FeedMagnet founder Jason Ford featured on the channel’s social platforms. The Smithsonian Channel provided an exclusive preview to The Root, featuring Jason Reynolds.
The full run of video essays can be viewed online on MTV’s Juneteenth page"
After he left the district attorney office in 1961, the artist continued to create tender portraits of the people, streets, and social upheavals that he came across. He amassed thousands of images—some vibrant and playful, others shadowy and laden with meaning—throughout the decades, up until the present day. In the 1970s, Harsley’s artistic practice became intertwined with a community-oriented role of his own creation. By then a resident of the Lower East Side, he started a non-profit organization called Minority Photographers, Inc. in 1971 to provide professional mentorship to others who were marginalized, which included fellow Black artists alongside a host of others that crossed racial and generational lines. Two years later, he moved into a dusty storefront space in the East Village and opened the 4th Street Photo Gallery, which hosted experimental exhibitions and quickly became an incubator for creative exchange within a community that included to-be heavyweights such as Dawoud Bey, Robert Frank, David Hammons, Cynthia MacAdams and Eli Reed. Remarkably, the gallery has resisted the tides of gentrification, and remains a lively space where Harsley works every day.
The First Light From Darkness—co-curated by Harsley’s daughter Kendra Krueger and coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Minority Photographers, Inc.—pairs a wide-ranging selection of the octogenarian’s photographs with a roving video work titled The First Light (2000–2020), an experimental endeavor which has culminated from a laborious process of shooting, layering, and editing over the past twenty years. A complex montage of flickering images and symbols set to a cacophonous score, the video takes viewers on a nonlinear journey across parallel dimensions, and metaphorically alludes to the cosmological origins of time and energy. These works will also be accompanied by historical materials culled from Minority Photographers, Inc. and the 4th Street Photo Gallery’s archives, to further contextualize Harsley’s lifelong dedication to his artistic and physical surroundings. As a whole, the exhibition pays tribute to an unsung hero within the creative landscape of New York City.
About the Artist
Alex Harsley (b. 1938 in Newport, South Carolina; lives and works in New York City, New York) is a self-taught, conceptual artist who explores dimensions of reality and entanglement, through the mediums of film and video. His reportage style of photography began in 1958, when he became employed as the first Black photographer for the New York District Attorney’s Office. In 1971 and 1973, he founded, respectively, Minority Photographers, Inc. and The 4th Street Photo Gallery, as refuges for artists of color. In addition to his own practice of documenting the personalities and intimate moments that have shaped the urban landscape, Harsley has collaborated with artists such as Candida Alvarez, Dawoud Bey and David Hammons. His work is included in the collections of the Ford Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Alex Harsley: First Light From Darkness is made possible by the Affirmation Arts Fund of the William Talbott Hillman Foundation.
This exhibition is also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature."
ALEX HARSLEY
CURATORS
KENDRA KRUEGER
VIVIAN CHUI
"Each year around June 19, Black communities across the country unite for a family reunion of sorts. Juneteenth activities feature the sights and sounds of Blackness: People enjoying art, music and food that connect them to a shared ancestry and history. They celebrate being their authentic selves. They celebrate freedom in both solemn and festive ceremonies.
This celebration marks a day in 1865 when enslaved Texans learned they’d be free—two months after Robert E. Lee surrendered and ended the Civil War and two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Initially a uniquely Texan observance, Juneteenth has now been recognized in some form in every corner of the country.
There are many ways to teach students about this celebration. Lessons about Juneteenth need to recognize the challenges those who fight injustice have always faced, but they shouldn’t be marked only by the tragedy of enslavement. Students, particularly Black students, can find empowerment in the jubilant celebrations of culture, activism and the humanity of a people.
Teaching Juneteenth: Culture as ResistanceAlthough the truth had been hidden from them—and they continued to face threats of continued oppression, violence and death—a year after they learned of their freedom, formerly enslaved people resiliently rallied around that date and made the celebration an annual ritual. Early Juneteenth observances included a search for lost family members and an opportunity to uplift each other as they moved through hostile environments.
With this knowledge, students can also identify ways the descendants of the enslaved recapture and honor the cultures, customs and practices lost through slavery.
Early celebrations involved readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, religious ceremonies, singing, games and enjoying foods that enslaved people ate. Today, it doesn’t look that much different. People retell histories, have family reunions, eat foods reminiscent of early Juneteenth celebrations such as barbeque, attend religious services or choir performances and have elaborate displays such as fancy dress and parades.
Teaching Juneteenth: Understanding EmancipationThat’s why Juneteenth is more than an observance of freedom. It’s also a time to share the experiences of those who fought—literally and figuratively—to seek true freedom for future generations. It’s important that we don’t whitewash this history.
Perhaps many center Lincoln in this history because we tend to think of the Emancipation Proclamation, instead of the 13th Amendment, as ending slavery. Our 2018 Teaching Hard History report found that 59 percent of high school students couldn’t correctly identify the latter as the legal end to slavery in the United States.
But it’s important for students to know that enslaved people didn’t willfully accept enslavement or wait for others to free them. They resisted often and consistently. While rare, violent rebellions did occur. Some people successfully escaped enslavement. And everyday acts of resistance, such as breaking tools or pretending to be ill were other ways enslaved people asserted their humanity.
While it certainly encouraged enslaved people to liberate themselves (letting them know they wouldn’t be re-enslaved if they escaped behind Union lines), the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t end U.S. slavery because it didn't apply to Union states. January 31, 1865 marks the day the 13th Amendment—which officially abolished slavery in the United States—was passed in Congress. Students need to know that there were people enslaved in Delaware until December 6, 1865, the day the 13th Amendment was finally ratified.
Juneteenth offers an opportunity to talk to students about this complex history. When you do, you can also talk about the progress and opposing forces that continue to threaten all of these milestones, even though they’re protected by the Constitution of the United States.
Teaching Juneteenth: Backlash to FreedomAmerican history has often been reduced to a simple story of continuous progress. In this context, the Emancipation Proclamation represents an important turning point—the country coming to its senses and setting the course for concrete steps toward true equality.
But it’s important for students to know that the announcement—and the celebration afterwards.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explains the origins of Juneteenth, the celebration of the end of slavery.
And some people taking advantage of their freedom were met with terror or even death. Newly freed people didn’t have protection until September 1865 with the creation of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and even those efforts were often thwarted during Reconstruction.
As TT Associate Editor Julia Delacroix points out, “Students tend to think of the fight for civil rights as though there has always been a set list of hurdles to be overcome—slavery, then racial terror, then segregation, then disenfranchisement, then mass incarceration.”
But we know that “racism takes the shape of whatever will hold it.” Barriers to freedom weren’t predestined, but they do confirm that there has always been a force to maintain racial hierarchy by pushing back against change.
In other words, with each attempt to bring justice and equality to all people, there is often a quick and fierce response. With each victory, there is yet another dueling force to conquer. The announcement of emancipation was no exception, and Juneteenth is a perfect opening to invite students to think about the “story of America” they often hear.
Teaching Juneteenth: American IdealsIt’s not too challenging to ask students to consider what Juneteenth tells us about our ideas about the United States. After all, another holiday—July Fourth—is in the shadow of Juneteenth. It’s a time when Americans are encouraged to rejoice in the nation’s independence...and freedom.
Students might recognize a paradox with July Fourth celebrations. They might question how a country could have touted the idea of freedom and liberty for all while also oppressing and treating an entire group of people as property. Those celebrations of independence went on for 89 years before the United States abolished slavery.
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass acknowledged this as “inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony” during his July 5, 1852 speech in Rochester, New York.
“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour…”
The irony hasn’t been lost on African Americans, who saw that true freedom included navigating society with social, political and economic power. Yet other Americans—those with and without power—fought actively to deny them those rights. For years this paradox dampened the enthusiasm to celebrate, and Juneteenth was not observed for several decades between WWII and the end of the civil rights movement.
The holiday wasn’t revived until the end of Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s campaign, which fell short of its ambitions after King was assassinated. Campaign organizers and protesters made their way to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where, for more than a month, they visited federal offices to demand economic justice. The campaign came to an end by late June, but not before recognizing June 19 as Solidarity Day.
William Wiggins Jr., professor emeritus of folklore at Indiana University and author of Jubilation: African-American Celebrations in the Southeast, told Smithsonian Magazine: “It was late June and there were people from all different states in that village for that summer, so they had a group from Texas and someone said, ‘Why don’t we have a Juneteenth celebration,’ which again is a way to address poverty and freedom and harkening back to our past.”
The commemoration of the end of slavery holds special meaning for Americans nationwide
Proponents of Juneteenth argue that it should be an officially recognized national holiday, not only as a way for the United States to acknowledge this vital history, but also to celebrate the values it lauds on paper. Texas officially declared June 19 an official holiday in 1980. And today, 40 other states and Washington, D.C., have adopted the holiday. Yet it’s amazing that this milestone in history isn’t officially recognized on a national level.
Knowledge about these dates and the celebration of them give students the steps to advocate for narratives and experiences that have been erased or forgotten. It also empowers them to connect with their own communities and to become advocates in a diverse democracy."
For Dr. Minott, a consultant in Houston who provides anti-racism training, the recent bill passed by Texas lawmakers is a frightening effort to discourage conversations about systemic racism that could lead to better racial justice. It targets what the politicians say are concepts found in critical race theory, a decades-old idea that considers the ways race and racism influence American politics, culture, and law.
“One of the things this legislation and others around the country is causing is keeping the silence [about racism] ... and that’s harmful for all of us but most particularly students of color,” she says.
A tug of war over the teaching of American history and race is playing out in state legislatures. Given the chasm between views on either side, what is the best path forward?
Ms. Steenman, who lives in Franklin, Tennessee, and runs a local chapter of the national group Moms for Liberty, has a different view. She sees critical race theory as an effort to sow strife among Americans and overturn racial progress.
“It seeks to divide along racial lines,” she says. “When you start bringing up critical race theory and bringing up skin color, you ... go back to neo-racism and neo-segregation and it’s a tragedy.”
A culture war is heating up just as students and teachers are starting to break for summer. Stoking the divisiveness is a push by conservative politicians to focus on critical race theory and whether its tenets are adversely affecting school climate and should be prohibited. Arguments for and against the approach do not always track precisely along political, racial, or ideological lines. In general, those in favor of the new laws want more restrictions as classroom discussions and hastily implemented anti-racist lesson plans have taken hold in the past year. Those opposed say statehouse rules could have a chilling effect on conversation about racism and race in schools just when it is needed most.
- NEW: An interview with poet Shanelle Gabriel and a poetry-writing exercise for young people inspired by Juneteenth
- NEW Lesson Plan: The Movement for Black Lives, 2012-2020
- NEW: An interview with Dr. Christopher Paul Harris, historian and curator, on the past, present, and future of Black activism
- NEW Profiles of Black activists of 19th-century NYC
MCNY Digital Learning Hub
To honor Juneteenth 2021, the Museum of the City of New York invited poet Shanelle Gabriel to create a poem for FREEDOM SONGS, an afternoon of song and spoken word reflections celebrating freedom and commemorating the ending of American slavery.
Watch the video to hear Gabriel discuss her artistic process and what Juneteenth means to her, and try her guided poetry-writing exercise for young people based on the theme “Freedom is…”
Learn More
In this lesson, students will become familiar with the sustained and organized activism of the Movement for Black Lives and examine how the recent 2020 uprisings brought #BlackLivesMatter back to the center of national conversation.
By viewing and interpreting sources, students will analyze the key issues of ending racial injustice, increasing community control, and providing equal access to health care, food, safety, and education in Black and Brown communities.
This lesson accompanies the case study “Racial Justice Today: The Movement for Black Lives, 2012–2020," part of the Museum’s online exhibition
Activist New York.
View All Activist New York Lesson Plans
Watch Black Activism: Past, Present, and Future to hear Dr. Christopher Paul Harris and Museum Educator Jelissa Caldwell discuss connecting the Movement for Black Lives to past Black activism, the journey of emancipation, and the process of reimagining the future.
Dr. Harris was a predoctoral fellow at the Museum and co-curated the case study “Racial Justice Today: The Movement for Black Lives, 2012–2020" with
Dr. Sarah Seidman, Puffin Foundation Curator of Social Activism, on view as part of the exhibition Activist New York.
Explore the stories of 19th-century Black activists in New York City featured in the Museum's exhibitions. Learn about the lives and legacies of David Ruggles, the Lyons Family, Elizabeth Jennings Graham, and Sarah Garnet, along with the actions they took to fight for abolition and full emancipation for Black Americans.
End this school year by experiencing the Museum of the City of New York with your students virtually this school year. Our K–12 virtual field trips reflect major curriculum topics, offer stimulating remote-learning sessions about New York City, and center student voices. Advance reservations required.
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