How The Fight For Racial Justice Is Changing Juneteenth This Year

By Steve Goldstein
Published: Thursday, June 18, 2020 - 2:24pm
Updated: Wednesday, June 24, 2020 - 11:45am

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the emancipation proclamation
National Archives
The Emancipation Proclamation, dated Jan. 1, 1863.

STEVE GOLDSTEIN: Juneteenth will be commemorated tomorrow. It marks the date in 1865 when slaves in Galveston, Texas, were first told about the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been signed by President Lincoln two-and-a-half years prior. The holiday wasn't officially recognized in Arizona until a couple of years ago when Rep. Reginald Bolding sponsored legislation that was passed by lawmakers and signed by the governor. Here to tell us more about the impact of Juneteenth and what to expect this year is Cloves Campbell Jr. He's publisher of the Arizona Informant Newspaper and a former lawmaker who held the seat currently occupied by Rep. Bolding. Cloves, you and your dad, also a former legislator, had tried to get Juneteenth officially recognized for years. What kind of pushback did you get?

CLOVES CAMPBELL JR.: Well, the biggest pushback is just probably ignorance from the people that didn't understand what the holiday means to African Americans and other people around the world — in the country, I'm sorry. And so with that pushback and that ignorance, you know, you introduce a bill and, you know, the process is just a committee. And if you don't have the numbers in committee, which Democrats never seem to have in Phoenix, in Arizona, it never made it past.

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GOLDSTEIN: Cloves, can you talk a bit about data? The percentage of the population is smaller. Does that lead to people not being as aware or does that allow them to sort of shut their minds to some of these things?

CAMPBELL JR.: Well, I think a little bit of both. You have people who just aren't aware and have no reason to look for information and you have some that don't, don't worry about it at all. I think that our population ... 2020 census, we're going to be close to 10% of African Americans in the state of Arizona, which is exponential growth over the last several years due to everything that Arizona has  to offer.

GOLDSTEIN: Juneteenth in and of itself right now, certainly in the broader sense we've seen a greater percentage of the population thinking about racial injustice, thinking about police brutality. So does Juneteenth take on even more significance in the greater sense, do you think, in the country? And will it have a bigger impact perhaps this year because more people are thinking about African Americans?

CAMPBELL JR.: You really hit it on the head. We've been getting calls almost daily about what can they do understanding that Juneteenth celebration this year [might] not be as big, obviously because of the COVID pandemic. We've got more cities celebrating... throughout the state as well before we started doing ours on a regular basis. The city of Phoenix here, we were the only city that was doing it. Now you've got... You've got Avondale, you got Mesa, you've got Chandler. So, yes, it's getting an opportunity to get more widespread notification. People are recognizing it more. And because of those issues that are happening right now, more things are happening.

GOLDSTEIN: Considering what we're seeing in, in the U.S. and the world right now, that is truly being spotlighted and highlighted, does that open it up in terms of actually trying to, to solve things? Does it change the tone — let me put this way — of what a Juneteenth event would have been in the past?

CAMPBELL JR.: Absolutely. I think that, you know, with the climate today and the way things are going, a lot of people are a lot more ... that more change is gonna come ... and how important it is to the heritage of not just African American people but our country. And then you see the backlash of people now pushing back.

GOLDSTEIN: But is there something that because, we've talked about how this year could be different, but is there something specific you want people who are thinking about Juneteenth or marking it to think about at this time in our history?

CAMPBELL JR.: Well, my wife, Lanette, actually sits on the national Juneteenth committee that meets probably every two weeks, by cellphone or via Zoom, and they were talking about what kind of specific messages should they have. A lot of people had a lot of different messages because of the fact that there are a lot of different things happening in each city. But one of the things that they did agree upon was the fact that Juneteenth is American history as well. And we want to make sure that that is part of the message as we move out. The fact that the things that happen, the things that happened during the Civil War and in those areas when slavery was in place, Juneteenth is a direct celebration to end all of that. And right now we haven't ended it. And there still seems to be a lot of discussion about it. But, yeah, that direct message will probably be 'this is a celebration for everyone.'.

GOLDSTEIN: So with your dad's history and all the efforts that you've put into being a public servant, and when it comes to dealing with racism, do you think our, what we're seeing right now is a turning point or do you think it can be another disappointment?

CAMPBELL JR.: I really think it's a turning point this time just because of the fact that some things had to happen that probably got more people's attention. One, the pandemic made everybody kind of stay at home and actually watch the news and see what's going on. And in most cases, when we, if we didn't have a pandemic, you would have seen a lot of people not even really pay attention to some of these things that are happening. Folks have been complaining about these issues for close to 100 years. This event has galvanized a bunch of young people. We have more media out there than we've ever had before. People can see what's going on and have real understanding, the real plight. Now you actually get an opportunity to see the video up front and personal. So, yes, I think this is a time of change. I think something is going to happen. You've already seen some meaningful, swift legislation going through some places already, at least changing the chokehold methods, things like that. Usually that would take months and years to change. This is happening in a record number time — we're talking about weeks. I think there's going to be a lot of change. I think it's going to be swiftly. And it's not gonna go away until some real significant changes are made in every state and city across the country.

GOLDSTEIN: That is Cloves Campbell Jr. He's chair of the Valley of the Sun Juneteenth. He's also a former state lawmaker, and he's also owner and publisher of the Arizona Informer newspaper. Cloves, thank you, stay well. We appreciate the time.

CAMPBELL JR.: I appreciate the opportunity. Always good to talk to you. We'll talk to you soon.

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