By Troy Newsome, Assistant Director of Media
Juneteenth is more than a moment in history. It’s a living promise—a declaration that freedom must be felt not just in body, but in opportunity. On June 19,1865, freedom from slavery finally reached Galveston, Texas. As someone born just blocks from where the news was delivered, I carry that legacy personally. But the story doesn’t end there.
I grew up on stories my grandfather told—of uncles who worked the land as sharecroppers under southern skies heavy with heat and history. He spoke of hands calloused from cotton, of backs that never bowed, of laughter that survived even when freedom felt far off. There were threats. There was violence.
The Klan tried to break what they couldn’t understand. But my family endured. Not just endured—rose. That legacy runs through me like a river, steady and unshakable. It’s why I believe freedom isn’t just the absence of chains—it’s the presence of dignity. The kind you can feel in your bones when you’ve worked hard, stood tall, and claimed what was always yours.
At Jobs to Move America, we believe public dollars should fund public goods. That means ensuring government contracts—like those for building electric buses or modernizing infrastructure—create good jobs for all, including Black and brown communities that have long been denied real access to opportunity.We saw this come to life in Anniston, Alabama—a city with its own painful legacy of racial violence and industrial injustice. We partnered with a community coalition and major employer to secure a community benefits agreement which is opening doors for quality, stable jobs, and keeping money circulating in the local community.
That’s what economic liberation looks like—when the systems that once locked us out begin to open up and we have a seat at the table.Juneteenth reminds us that delayed justice is still injustice. That’s why we fight to use public investment as a tool to build something better, not to erase the past, but to confront it with action and intention.This Juneteenth, we don’t just remember the call to freedom—we respond to it. With policy. With organizing. With action!