I don’t mean to rain on today’s Juneteenth parade, but…

Today is Juneteenth…officially Juneteenth National Independence Day, a federal holiday in the United States. It is celebrated every year on June 19 to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. The holiday's name, first used in the 1890s, is a blend of the words “June” and “nineteenth,” referring to June 19, 1865, the day when Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the American Civil War. 

It is indeed a day of celebration, but as I was preparing this piece I ran across Marsha P. Johnson’s quote: “How many years has it taken people to realize that we are all brothers and sisters and human beings in the human race?” 

My response: It still hasn’t happened! 

My work focuses on the plight of incarcerated men and women, and in the HFP office we’re finding that Blacks are still far from getting fair treatment! 

When it comes to getting into trouble

-Communities of color are over-policed through biased traffic stops, pedestrian searches, and drug arrests; and

Criminalizing activities often associated with poverty such as driving without a license, drug use, and prostitution disproportionately impact people of color. 

When it comes to getting arrested

-Prosecutors and judges often treat Black people more harshly in their charging and sentencing decisions; and

-Blacks are more likely than whites to be confined awaiting trial. 

When it comes to court appearances

           -Juries display implicit bias towards defendants of color;

-Black men receive sentences approximately 13.4% longer than white men for similar federal offenses; and

-Black Americans are imprisoned at five times the rate of whites. 

When it comes to arriving at the wrong verdict

-Innocent Black Americans are seven times more likely than white Americans to be falsely convicted of serious crimes;  

-Innocent Black people are about seven-and-a-half times more likely to be convicted of murder than innocent white people; and

-Black people who are convicted of murder are about 80% more likely to be innocent than other convicted murderers. 

Besides that

-The convictions that led to murder exonerations with Black defendants were almost 50% more likely to include misconduct by police officers than those with white defendants! 

And, when it comes time for reconsideration

-Correctional officers, parole boards, and probation and parole officers are more strict towards people of color when making disciplinary assessments and parole eligibility. 

My passion re this topic is completely explainable. HUMANTY FOR PRISONERS was founded 25 years ago as a result of my decade-long battle to free a wrongly convicted Black man! 

On Juneteenth, 2026, HFP agrees with Alicia Garza: 

“If we want to get to the place where all lives matter, then we have to make sure that Black lives matter, too.”