2019 Juneteenth Week of Celebration
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Stop Police Terror Project DC is bringing back our popular Juneteenth Week of Action and Celebration again this year. Together, we will reflect, rejoice and be in community with one another. But to do this, we need your help.
Check out our full list of events , including a community celebration on June 22nd in Marvin Gaye Park.
Your support helps us:
- Provide free, healthy meals at our events
- Pay Black singers and artists to perform
- Hire Black childcare providers
- Offer American Sign Language interpretation
- Secure necessary park permits
If you would like to donate $250 or more to support our event, please contact us at [email redacted] for instructions about how to make your donation via PayPal or check.
Photo from our 2018 Juneteenth Community Celebration
Why Celebrate Juneteenth?
Juneteenth serves as a historical milestone that honors those Black ancestors who survived this country’s institution of bondage and those of us who continue to do so, as well as celebrate the Black community’s legacy of resistance, perseverance and strength of the human spirit. On June 19, 1865, enslaved Black people in Texas got word that slavery had ended, two years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
The police as an institution has its very root in slavery, and that from the very beginning police were not in place to ensure the safety of Black people, but to surveil, abuse and contain Black people to serve at the whim of slave owners and protect their economic interests.
Today -- centuries after formal emancipation -- the role of police remains essentially unchanged, especially In poor and working-class Black communities. Stop Police Terror Project DC calls not only for an end to police abuses, but also for critical investments and solutions to systemic issues such as housing, healthcare, jobs and education. It also informs our efforts to push for more community-based alternatives to policing and public safety.
Here in Washington, DC, not even young children are safe from experiencing racist police terror , and the culture of impunity surrounding police killings is still well in place in the nation’s capital. Even though recently we’ve seen a rare instance of accountability as a local officer was fired for an outrageous stop and frisk incident , it’s clear that these brutal tactics are still very much in use in DC, despite city officials lying about it .
We hope you will join us to uplift the important legacy of Juneteenth and connect those struggles with the fight that continues today.
Photo from our 2018 Juneteenth Prison Letter Writing Potluck
Check out our full list of events , including a community celebration on June 22nd in Marvin Gaye Park.
Your support helps us:
- Provide free, healthy meals at our events
- Pay Black singers and artists to perform
- Hire Black childcare providers
- Offer American Sign Language interpretation
- Secure necessary park permits
If you would like to donate $250 or more to support our event, please contact us at [email redacted] for instructions about how to make your donation via PayPal or check.
Photo from our 2018 Juneteenth Community Celebration
Why Celebrate Juneteenth?
Juneteenth serves as a historical milestone that honors those Black ancestors who survived this country’s institution of bondage and those of us who continue to do so, as well as celebrate the Black community’s legacy of resistance, perseverance and strength of the human spirit. On June 19, 1865, enslaved Black people in Texas got word that slavery had ended, two years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
The police as an institution has its very root in slavery, and that from the very beginning police were not in place to ensure the safety of Black people, but to surveil, abuse and contain Black people to serve at the whim of slave owners and protect their economic interests.
Today -- centuries after formal emancipation -- the role of police remains essentially unchanged, especially In poor and working-class Black communities. Stop Police Terror Project DC calls not only for an end to police abuses, but also for critical investments and solutions to systemic issues such as housing, healthcare, jobs and education. It also informs our efforts to push for more community-based alternatives to policing and public safety.
Here in Washington, DC, not even young children are safe from experiencing racist police terror , and the culture of impunity surrounding police killings is still well in place in the nation’s capital. Even though recently we’ve seen a rare instance of accountability as a local officer was fired for an outrageous stop and frisk incident , it’s clear that these brutal tactics are still very much in use in DC, despite city officials lying about it .
We hope you will join us to uplift the important legacy of Juneteenth and connect those struggles with the fight that continues today.
Photo from our 2018 Juneteenth Prison Letter Writing Potluck
Organizer
Leah Watson
Organizer
Washington D.C., DC
