Juneteenth: A Generation of Parallels

This year's APAI Juneteenth celebrations bring back memories of APAI's official launch in 2020. The launch came with mixed emotions… Great celebration and recognition, but the terrible truth that equal treatment under the law is still inconsistent, at best, 157 years after freedom came to the enslaved in Texas.

APAI launch and was met with an overwhelmingly positive response within Insight, as seen by the Webex meeting that could not accommodate all of the attendees. There was moving content of that first Juneteenth APAI program – both intellectual and emotional. I left the event that day feeling inspired, optimistic, and proud to be working for a corporation that was supporting APAI's work and its connection to?Insight's?corporate core values.?In contrast, this celebration came only a few weeks after the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police. A murder that was one of so many killings over hundreds of years, but was so blatant, so horrifying, and so clearly documented that it got world-wide attention. It was also still the early days of the pandemic – all over the world people were marching in George Floyd's memory with masks on carrying Black Lives Matter?(BLM)?signs and kneeling for 9+ minutes in his memory.

Around the same time a?PBS documentary by Stanley Nelson?on the Black Panther party reminded me of some history I'd forgotten from when I was growing up in Chicago. Not too much later, the amazing film?Judas and the Black Messiah?told the story of Fred Hampton's murder to a huge audience, including many born decades after it occurred in 1969. As I learned more about the Black Lives Matter founding principles, I couldn’t help but compare the BLM movement to the Black Panther party. I was not the only one to make the comparison.

?Formed in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the Black Panthers reasons for existing, especially police brutality to Black people, are sadly familiar and still important founding principles of Black Lives Matter. A?TIME article?notes: "… One of the central catalysts for their formation was the death of Matthew Johnson, an unarmed Black 16-year-old who was shot to death by police in San Francisco in 1966. …Black Lives Matter was formed under similar circumstances, following the acquittal of George Zimmerman for killing the unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2013.” While the Panthers monitored police abuse legally armed with weapons, BLM activists monitored police abuse armed with cell phones and social media.

?Other important influences of the Black Panthers that persist in 2022 were the attention to mutual community aid – mutual aid starting with the Black Panthers' breakfast programs for children and seen today in networks that sprung up during the pandemic to provide groceries, help with rent, vaccines in neighborhoods, and more. Both organizations had strong female leadership; BLM had female founders and the Panthers had a female national leader for several years (at a time when there were almost no female leaders of anything.)?

?Two years after APAI's Juneteenth launch, we continue to experience the lows of gun violence, racially directed hate, and police brutality. But,?in my opinion,?remembering the contributions of the Black Panther Party?inspires us with a reminder of the progress we can make as we continue to address the negativity that persists today.?Through the example of?Bobby Rush, who narrowly missed being murdered along with Fred Hampton in 1969, this year retires from 30 years as an Illinois Representative in Congress, representing my old neighborhood in Chicago. Finally, the joy I felt after the first APAI session on Juneteenth, 2020 is experienced at every APAI general meeting. I come away every time, impressed with the talents of APAI members, inspired, uplifted, and joyful.?