Celebrate, Educate, and Agitate. These goals of Juneteenth, coined by Mitch Kachun, exemplify that the celebration of Juneteenth is as much a celebration of freedom as it is a celebration of our resistance to injustice and resilience as a community, for more reasons than just overcoming a history of enslavement. While Juneteenth is now celebrated as an official national holiday across the United States, we have a responsibility to pay reverence to the history of harm that created this holiday in the first place, and the ways that the cycle of oppression continues to have modern-day implications.
Now, for those who are unaware of the origins of Juneteenth, Juneteenth marks the day that enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas were freed by executive decree more than two years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.
The history of Juneteenth celebrations is not as simple as a jubilee to celebrate the end of slavery. As with most of Black American history, significant efforts inhibited our ability to celebrate and our civil rights.
The first Juneteenth celebration occurred in Texas churches because Black public gatherings were still prohibited. However, despite attempts to prevent us from celebrating, we persisted, and Juneteenth celebrations spread throughout the South to their eventual commercialization during the 1920s and 1930s.
A group of Black leaders even banded together to purchase land specifically for Juneteenth Celebrations, which is now known as Houston’s Emancipation Park.
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Juneteenth celebrations were characterized by good food, good music, fun games, and even political rallies to provide voting instructions to newly freed African Americans.
Juneteenth celebrations made their way across the country as the Great Migration pushed Black folks to search for financial stability in urban areas.
However, the celebrations were not always possible, especially once America entered the Great Depression. As Black people were forced to work on Juneteenth during this period, there was an obvious decline in celebrations. But this wouldn’t deter Texans from continuing to celebrate the celebration that they started.
Between 1936 and 1951, the Texas State Fair served as the destination for Juneteenth and thus contributed to the overall revival of Juneteenth.
The deterrence from celebrating our freedom and our persistence in chasing joy are distinctive markers of our resilience as a community. As you can see, at every step of our journey, we have had to fight for our right to live and our fight against tobacco usage is no different.
During the 19th century, the main plantation system throughout America was tobacco cultivation. As tobacco usage transitioned from loose tobacco to cigarettes, the tobacco industry became even more successful and thus required even more intense labor and further exploitation of enslaved people.
Following the end of slavery, the tobacco industry transitioned from exploiting the Black community for labor to exploiting and targeting Black people to use tobacco products. Corporations like RJ Reynolds even went as far as to place a plethora of advertisements and promotions for menthol cigarettes in racially segregated neighborhoods.
Although African Americans, on average, smoke fewer cigarettes and start cigarette smoking at older ages compared to their white counterparts, African Americans are more likely to die from smoking-related diseases, including heart disease, stroke and cancer.
According to 2019 estimates, 14.9% of current tobacco use is from African Americans and E-Cigarette use is even lower, at 3.4%. The ramifications of a long history between tobacco and the Black community are dire, but we have the capability to resist and persist in the ways that our ancestors did to secure our joy and freedom.
Curbing tobacco usage is not and has never been as straightforward as just deciding to stop. Addressing the systemic barriers that lead to increased stress levels and thus tobacco usage in our community.
The cultural and historical significance of tobacco in our community as a social bonding tool makes this issue even more difficult. Although it will take significant time and policy to address each of the barriers- housing, transportation, debt, discrimination, etc. – that cause the added stressors in our community, there are many stress-reduction tools that our community can access such as yoga, meditation, exercise, music deep breathing exercises and more. Many of those stress-reduction techniques are even more successful in community-based settings.
Juneteenth was built around community support and advocacy; it is only right to continue it through tobacco cessation and stress reduction as a community.
To continue the traditions of our ancestors not only means community celebrations through music, food, and games, it also entails continuing to radically change the circumstances of our community and that includes minimizing the generational harm substances have on our community members.
Our story is one of resilience and resistance despite the efforts of people who intend to oppress us. While we celebrate Juneteenth, we should celebrate our continued ability to change and shape our current circumstances, including the way that we engage with tobacco.
Veronica Joseph is an Advocacy and Engagement Chair at Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health Behavioral, Social, and Health Education Sciences.
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