Juneteenth so a sistah been celebrating. Raise a toast for all those who are melanated. Basking in the beauty of what God created.
Run tell that, the south has been liberated. Black people waited for so long to be set free. 1865 Galveston, TX.
The revolution wasn’t televised, but it was prophesied. It was decreed, from a proclamation that was issued in 1862.
And so it became: A day of Jubilee. Yeah, call it: Freedom Day. Redemption from enslavement. General Order Number 3.
Like a get out of jail free card, for those incarcerated by slave labor and the burden of being deemed property.
13th Amendment, let that sink in.
Let the revelation flow across your mahogany skin, when you think of our ancestors and how they rejoiced.
Raised their hands and lifted every voice, maybe you too can make the choice, to actualize your dreams.
Give privilege to precedence over fear. There is no master asserting themselves over you now.
Declare advocacy for our rights to proudly remain here. Give power to credence over supremacy.
God give privilege to obtain an education and never being left down.
Give blacks the same opportunity as those afforded to everyone else.
May every disadvantage be erased and removed from the shelf.
May all forms of discrimination be replaced with impartiality!
No more race based offenses towards other colors and creeds.
A better day is coming, if you believe.
A better day is here now for those willing to stand together to say, “injustice must recede like the tide.”
Draw back from the shores and never collide with this land.
God, unlock the shackles where we stand. May we receive with open hands every resource withheld and denied.
May we replace all withering branches of shame with a blossom of pride.
We’ve allied our hearts to stand together so may solidarity provide us a guide to a better tomorrow for the future we foresee, as we celebrate the beauty of being free.
Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson, poet laureate of San Antonio 2020-2023.
