By Mark Zimmermann
Catholic Standard / OSV News
WASHINGTON — Juneteenth and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence provided the context for a June 15 online discussion on the importance of acknowledging the nation’s racial history honestly so the work of justice and equality can continue.
“We actually have to have the courage to be truth tellers and to tell the full truth, the full story of who we are as Americans, and not be afraid to do so. … We have to make sure that in the story of America, all those who have contributed to this country are included, because all of it makes up who we are,” said Bishop-designate Robert P. Boxie III, an African American priest who on May 1 was appointed by Pope Leo XIV to become a new auxiliary bishop of Washington.
Bishop-designate Boxie was among the panelists in a dialogue on “250 Years Towards Racial Justice: Progress, Promise, and Challenges,” sponsored by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University.
Presenting the “true truth” about the painful aspects of U.S. history is important, he said, because avoiding those realities “prevents us from healing.”
The other panelists were Melvin Rogers, the Edna and Richard Salomon distinguished professor of political science and associate director of the Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island; and Diann Rust-Tierney, an associate professor of law at the University of the District of Columbia’s David A. Clarke School of Law.
“While the Declaration of Independence states, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,’ enslavement did not end in this country until 1865, 89 years after the signing of this founding document,” said moderator Kimberly Mazyck, associate director for engagement at the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown.
The conversation was held four days before Juneteenth, which every year commemorates June 19, in 1865, when, more than two months after the Civil War ended, U.S. Major Gen. Gordon Granger issued an order informing the people of Texas that all enslaved people there were now free.
“To my mind, the 250th anniversary and Juneteenth, these things don’t stand in opposition, they’re not in competition,” Rogers said.