Alveda King: Juneteenth Celebrates End of Slavery, Now We Need to End Abortion so Babies Can Celebrate

Juneteenth, the newest of the nationally recognized holidays, doesn’t fall until June 19 but celebrations already have begun across the nation. Kansas City, MO, and Dothan, AL, staged parades earlier this month, while 96-year-old Opal Lee, known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” was honored in Philadelphia.

The bill establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday was passed in 2021 by a unanimous vote in the U.S. Senate and with overwhelming and bipartisan support in the House. It was signed into law by President Joe Biden on June 17, 2021.

The first legislation to make Juneteenth a legal holiday was first introduced during the administration of former President Donald Trump. We were instrumental, as supporters and informal advisors, in encouraging support for the holiday designation and in raising awareness of the holiday.

Then-President Trump helped to spread the word about Juneteenth when his campaign inadvertently scheduled his first post-pandemic rally on June 19. Black leaders asked Trump to change the date, and he did so.

Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when people held as slaves in Texas finally learned that the abhorrent practice of slavery in America had ended two years previously, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation freed “all persons held as slaves” in the states that had rebelled against the Union, and Texas was one of them.

But Juneteenth didn’t only free the captives; the captors were freed as well. A nation that allows one or more groups of human beings to be held as slaves is a broken land, every citizen impacted by this grotesque practice. Juneteenth marks a day America began to heal.

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We are still in need of that healing, as we can see by the fracas over a billboard in South Carolina. City leaders in Greenville found themselves apologizing for erecting a billboard featuring a white couple in an advertisement for Juneteenth events. The billboard likely was an attempt at inclusivity, but it was tone-deaf, at best.

We passionately support and promote the truth that no matter what color our skin might be, we are one race, the human race, and both have devoted our lives to advocating for the one group of human beings who have not yet been freed: Children in the womb.

We are expecting that as many as 200,000 babies will be spared from abortion thanks to the Supreme Court decision a year ago overturning Roe v. Wade, but we also know that Black babies have a much higher risk of being aborted than White babies. The abortion industry, founded by eugenicists, still seems hell bent on annihilating Black Americans.

Please be mindful: Much of the media promotes laws and propaganda that Black women will be harmed the most if they are unable to abort their babies. Meanwhile, we see declining abortion numbers as good news, for babies and their mothers.

Women facing unexpected pregnancies have many options thanks to the pregnancy help movement, which is more robust than ever. Some states have increased government funding for centers that help mothers choose life and its infinite possibilities over the dead end of abortion.

The day in 1865 when Gen. Gordon Granger delivered news of the Emancipation Proclamation to the last people held as slaves in the U.S. will now forever be celebrated as a day of independence from our national shame of slavery. That’s a good thing.

What will make it better – for those of us who work in pro-life, for everyone who has been impacted by abortion, and for all Americans – will come when the unalienable rights endowed by our Creator and guaranteed by our Declaration of Independence are extended to children in the womb.

For years, Ms. Lee – Juneteenth’s grandmother – walked from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., advocating for a national designation for the holiday. During a June 4 ceremony in Philadelphia where she was honored for those efforts, she said she has no plans to stop walking and talking.

“We tried so hard to show that freedom is for everyone,” she said. “Not just for Texans, not just for Black people, but freedom is for everyone.”

A good next step for the progress of freedom would be to recognize that “everyone” includes the children in the womb.

LifeNews Note: Dr. Alveda King is a pastoral advisor at Priests for Life and leads its Civil Rights for the Unborn outreach. A niece of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., she has authored many books, including King Rules and How Can the Dream Survive if We Murder the Children. Frank Pavone is national director of Priests for Life and the national pastoral director of Rachel’s Vineyard Ministries and the Silent No More Awareness Campaign. The books he has authored include Abolishing Abortion and Proclaiming the Message of Life.

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