America@250: Author Isabel Wilkerson Honors Juneteenth 2026
- Gina Greenlee, Author
- Jul 5
- 2 min read
“246 years. Nearly two and a half centuries. That is how long slavery lasted in what is now the United States of America,” wrote Isabel Wilkerson on Facebook in June 2026.
“This is the day that we commemorate the moment that the last enslaved Americans were finally freed in the slavery stronghold of Texas on June 19, 1865. They had toiled for two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation and months after the end of the Civil War.
“These are the people, the enslaved ancestors, whose courage and fortitude we honor today. They are the reason we celebrate.
“This is a time to remember that slavery was not merely a sad, dark chapter in our country’s history, but the foundation of the country’s social, political and economic order, and that it lasted for nearly a quarter of a millennium.
“Slavery lasted so long that no adult alive today will be alive at the point when African-Americans will have been free for as long as African-Americans were enslaved. That will not happen until the year 2111.
“This is what I said on @NPR at the previous Juneteenth 2025:
“The building of the country cannot be extricated from slavery: Enslaved people cleared the land and built the early infrastructure that would become the United States. They built the wall in lower Manhattan from which Wall Street takes its name. They built the Capitol Building and the White House.
“This is a day to recognize and extend gratitude to twelve generations of people who gave so much to this country and received so little for their hard labors.”
“Here in this iconic photo, survivors of slavery steadfastly observe Juneteenth in their hats, canes and bonnets in Austin, Texas, 1900. In the early years, the newly freed people and their descendants took pains to dress up for Juneteenth, as laws had forbidden enslaved people from dressing “above their station,” above their caste.
“As we mark the country’s 250th year since its birth in 1776, let us remember the people who had to wait another 89 years to finally be set free from chattel slavery. This is the full Independence Day for all Americans. Happy Juneteenth!”
