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Juneteenth

A historic moment remembered in the continued work toward equality.

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Although the Civil War ended in 1863 with President Abraham Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation calling for the abolition of slavery, news did not reach Texas until nearly two years later, when Union troops arrived in Galveston and General Gordon Granger read General Order No. 3: "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

On that day, more than 250,000 enslaved people in Texas were freed and celebrations erupted across the state. Why it took so long for an executive order abolishing slavery to reach Texas is unclear, but the significance of the moment is not. June 19th would become known as Juneteenth, the oldest national observance commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. 

This year, Fletcher joins the Tufts community in recognizing Juneteenth as a Day of Reflection, Commitment and Action for Social Justice and calling for a continuation of work toward equality and a diverse, inclusive, equitable, non-racist society. A meaningful program is planned for Friday, June 18, 2021 that includes a keynote address from Boston civil rights leader Dr. David Harris, followed by a series of plenary sessions to further our campus community efforts to eradicate racism from wherever it may exist within the broader academic institution. The public is invited to attend the keynote; the Tufts community is invited to attend the keynote and plenary sessions. Please use this link to register.

The Fletcher School is an international center of academic excellence, with a global reputation for innovative research that informs policy and contributes to the understanding of society’s most pressing issues. Through Fletcher's research institutes, centers, and programs faculty and students work to advance thinking about topics of universal importance and impact. For Juneteenth, we offer a list of anti-racism educational resources and a sampling of recent and relevant research:

Research and Resources

  • The Shifting Geography of Talent

    Courtesy of IBGC, Digital Planet

    Summary: Analyzes where the most racially diverse pools of tech talent are in the United States, and discusses the need for more racial representation in the Big Tech workforce.

  • Actionable Evidence: What a Donor Learnt about Addressing Police Corruption

    Courtesy of Leir Institute 

    Summary:  Interview with a member of INL’s Office of Knowledge Management about addressing police corruption through actionable evidence.

  • Big Tech’s Opportunity for Inclusive Growth

    Courtesy of IBGC, Digital Planet

    Summary: How work from home experiences attributed to the pandemic could serve as a catalyst for the tech industry to narrow its large disparities in racial diversity.

  • A Tale of Two Digital Economies: Gig Workers and Remote Workers

    Courtesy of IBGC, Digital Planet 

    Summary: Analyzes gig economy workers and where they are located in the U.S. throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In this pandemic, Black gig workers more exposed to health risks on the job and have lower financial and legal security because of the nature of gig work contracts. 

  • Color of Disparity: Addressing extant racial gaps in digital and economic capital key to ensuring an inclusive recovery 

    Courtesy of IBGC, Digital Planet

    Summary: Pre-existing racial disparities in unemployment, digital access, and financial resilience have been exacerbated in COVID-19’s wake. Black communities have been disproportionately impacted––in mortality, morbidity, unemployment, and financial losses. As governments and businesses prepare to navigate the economic and public health repercussions of the pandemic, it is crucial to account for these extant inequalities to ensure inclusive recovery.

  • Calling Out Automated Racism

    Courtesy of Hitachi Center and Africana Club

    Summary: Fletcher students and alumni share research into how algorithmic biases drive inequality.

  • How Disparities in Digital Access Hurt Black and Latinx Communities

    Courtesy of IBGC, Digital Planet

    Summary: The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare longstanding and systemic issues of inequality in the United States. Certain marginalized races and ethnicities (Black or African American and Hispanic or Latinx households) are over-represented in less-flexible, low-tech, and “high-touch” occupations and under-represented in the information economy and “high-tech” occupations; an outcome of decades of disparity in access to critical digital services like stable and affordable internet and computers.

  • A list of anti-racism educational resources