From June 16th to Juneteenth: Lessons in Liberation

This week, I have been thinking about a question I'm asked a lot, especially lately, given the current political climate in the US: Can we really make a difference? The answer, whether you are in the US, South Africa, or anywhere else, is yes.

This week, Black communities on both sides of the Atlantic marked two anniversaries that demonstrate the power of the individual and the collective: June 16th and Juneteenth.

On June 16, 1976, thousands of South African students walked out of their schools to protest inequality in education. While the Bantu Education Act—which legally entrenched racial inequality in South Africa's education system—was enacted in 1953, it was in 1975 that the apartheid government mandated Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. Afrikaans—a creole language derived from the Dutch spoken by many colonial settlers—was imposed on students already learning in English, a foreign language, adding to their burden.

While this edict was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back, the student protests were not only about language policy but also addressed a system that regarded Black people as inferior and which sought to undermine their humanity, dignity, and agency.

Under the leadership of the South African Students Movement (SASM), the high school wing of the Black Consciousness Movement founded by Steve Biko, thousands of youth were mobilized to protest. The plan was for students to leave their classrooms and to march to the nearby Orlando Stadium for a rally.

They never made it.

En route, protesters were met by tanks and heavily armed police who opened fire on the students.

The peaceful protest initiated by students on June 16, 1976, evolved into a nationwide, year-long uprising that many regard as a turning point in South Africa's liberation struggle. 

Hundreds were killed. Thousands were detained.

Although the toll was devastating, the Soweto Uprising galvanized international solidarity: calls for divestment and an international boycott of South Africa strengthened; the African National Congress (ANC) and Pan African Congress (PAC)—liberation movements in exile—were invigorated by young recruits who joined them to fight for their freedom; and communities across South Africa re-engaged in mass protests, which became a major contributor to the fall of the apartheid regime.

Where June 16th reveals the power of the collective, Juneteenth reminds us what one determined individual can do.

For years, 98-year-old Opal Lee—affectionately known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth”—led the charge to make Juneteenth a U.S. federal holiday.

Juneteenth—June 19—marks the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Texas, informing enslaved people that they had been legally freed over two and a half years earlier, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Enslavers had deliberately withheld this information, continuing to exploit Black labor long after slavery had been abolished.

A lifelong Texan, Ms. Lee committed herself to correcting that historical silence. In 2016, just before her 90th birthday, she began walking two and a half miles each day in cities across the US, a symbolic tribute to the two and a half year delay in delivering the news of freedom to Black Texans.

In 2021, in the wake of the 2020 racial reckoning, Juneteenth was finally recognized as a federal holiday. Ms. Lee was there to witness President Joe Biden sign it into law.

I share all of this to say: Yes, each of us can make a difference.

From teenagers in Soweto to a nonagenarian walking for truth, history teaches us that we all have a role to play in the fight for freedom. For you, that contribution may be mentoring youth, teaching elders to use tech, or organizing your community for political action. However you choose to show up, your contribution matters.

If you'd like some resources to help you understand what your role in change might be, check out the work of Deeper Iyer at the Building Movement Project: The Social Change Map. And if you're looking for more agency in your life and work overall,  consider coaching. Book a discovery call today.

But above all, remember the words of Alice Walker, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.”