%20(600%20x%20720%20px)%20(21).png)
By Simone Price, Director of Organizing, Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO)
Juneteenth celebrates freedom. On June 19, 1865, enslaved people in Texas finally learned they had been freed more than two years earlier. We celebrate the resilience, courage, and determination of Black Americans who refused to let freedom remain a promise on paper.
The story of Juneteenth is not simply about emancipation. It is about the distance between what the law says and what people experience in their daily lives. It is about systems that adapt to preserve inequality even after historic victories have been won.
As we recognize Juneteenth today, we must also confront an uncomfortable truth: the fight for freedom did not end in 1865. Following the abolition of slavery, new systems emerged that continued to restrict the freedom, economic mobility, and political power of Black Americans. Black Codes, convict leasing, red lining, discriminatory policing, exclusion from economic opportunities, and generations of unequal treatment ensured that many Black communities remained locked out of the promises of freedom.
The criminal legal system became one of the primary mechanisms through which those barriers persisted. Today, the United States incarcerates more people than any nation in the world. The impacts are not felt equally. Black Americans continue to be disproportionately arrested, convicted, incarcerated, and burdened by the lifelong consequences of a criminal record.
For many people, the punishment does not end when they leave prison. A criminal record can follow someone for decades, creating barriers to employment, housing, education, healthcare, public benefits, and financial stability. Long after a sentence has been served, millions of Americans remain locked out of opportunities that most of us take for granted.
That is why, for me, Juneteenth is not only a time for reflection, it is a call to action. At the Center for Employment Opportunities, our organizing work is rooted in a simple belief: people who have been incarcerated should not be punished for life when they return to their communities. We believe that freedom is only achieved once we offer true economic opportunity to each person, regardless of their criminal legal history.
Freedom means having the opportunity to build a career. Freedom means being able to provide for your family. Freedom means being able to rent an apartment, access healthcare, put food on the table, and participate fully in your community. Freedom means being treated as a person with potential rather than reduced to a background.
Every day, I have the privilege of working alongside justice-impacted leaders who are organizing to make that vision a reality. These are individuals who know firsthand what it means to encounter barriers that were designed to hold us back. After years of organizing to reform reentry, I am continually impressed by the altruism exemplified by advocates who have been incarcerated. For most, organizing is not their primary job. They show up after-hours, sometimes after working not one, but two jobs. They are advocating for laws knowing all the while they won’t reap the benefits. They are committed to championing policies for the people preparing for their release date.
Across the country, CEO participants, alumni, and community leaders are speaking directly to lawmakers, sharing their stories, and advocating for policies that expand opportunity rather than limit it. They are fighting to improve access to employment, strengthen pathways to economic mobility, expand food security, improve healthcare access, and remove barriers that prevent people from successfully returning home after incarceration. They are advocating for true freedom.
Most importantly, they are changing the narrative. For too long, conversations about justice-impacted people have happened without justice-impacted people at the table. Organizing changes that dynamic. It allows those closest to the challenges to help shape the solutions. When we listen to the barriers felt by those who have experienced the criminal legal system, we can craft and pass policies that remove hurdles and open the door to economic opportunity, stability, and mobility. From exposing the erroneous nature of background checks to ensuring each person leaving incarceration receives their identification, each policy is informed by lived experience, and each win brings us to a more equitable society.
On Juneteenth, we are reminded that freedom delayed is freedom denied. All progress in America’s history written by people who organized. It has required people willing to challenge systems and remain steadfast through frustration to fight for a better future. Juneteenth reminds us that freedom is not self-executing. Rights on paper must be translated into opportunity in practice.
So as we commemorate this historic day, we also recognize how much work remains.The unfinished work of freedom requires us to confront barriers that continue to limit opportunity for millions of Americans, particularly Black Americans who remain disproportionately impacted by the criminal legal system.
At CEO, we are committed to that work. Because true freedom is not just about release from incarceration. True freedom is the opportunity to thrive.And that is a future worth organizing for.
