On Juneteenth, How Reparations for Slavery Could Actually Work
It seems unfinished business from more than one American war still haunts us.
On this day in 1865, Major General Gordon Granger and his Union soldiers landed at Galveston, Texas heralding news that the Civil War had ended and that the enslaved were now free.
That news came a little late—two and a half years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
But for many African Americans, Juneteenth has become the most celebrated day in American history.
It's a day to reflect on how far we've come, but it also reminds us of all that still needs to be done for race relations in this country.
Mary Frances Berry is the former chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and author of "My Face Is Black Is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations." She says Juneteenth is as good a time as any to make the case for reparations for slavery.
