Legislatively Speaking
By Senator Lena C. Taylor
The Story of Blacks in America Will Forever Be Told
Lena C. Taylor
It’s hard to trace the exact origins of the saying “You Can Kill the Messenger, But Not the Message.” While research has pinpointed the adage’s roots to the Middle Ages, many also associate the idiom with ancient wars and the relaying of distressing information across enemy lines. Today, many Americans have shortened the saying to simply “Don’t shoot the Messenger” and yet they refuse to take our own advice.
Today’s messengers, both living and deceased, have worked to ensure that the experience of formerly enslaved Black people, in the United States, continues to be told. Whether in books, classrooms, or contemporary culture, there must be an opportunity to tell the truth about the country’s legacy of slavery.
As Juneteenth celebration plans kick into high-gear next week, we must be reminded of a few things. First, Juneteenth’s origin begins in Galveston, Texas. Enslaved people were told of their emancipation on June 19, 1865, some two-and-a-half years after they had already been technically freed. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Slaveholders in Texas didn’t tell enslaved people that they had been freed. They attempted to exploit them for free labor indefinitely.
A messenger, Union General Gordon Granger, arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved Blacks of their freedom and that the Civil War had ended. Granger died 10 years after delivering his announcement of a stroke. The message lives on and it still celebrated some 157 years later.
However, don’t get me wrong. There is a concerted effort to dismantle and dilute the message. The push to ban books, speakers, groups, and programming is an example of the effort to kill the message. According to PEN, a free speech organization, since book bans started in July 2021, there have been more than 4,000 instances of book removals. There is a national movement, led by a host of Republicans and conservatives, to ban any message about the history and impact of slavery on African-Americans.
Messengers who work in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) roles throughout state, municipal and local political units, are being driven out of organizations. Through state-sanctioned funding cuts, policy initiatives and changes to state law, governing bodies are being used to kill the message. In fact, the Wisconsn Republican-controlled state legislature has been working overtime to silence voices, stop work intended to raise awareness about equitable and inclusive policies and value diversity.
Beaming with pride, they have sought to control the DEI narrative and at times it feels like they are winning. In my frustration, I am reminded of Jamelle Bouie’s words “Juneteenth may mark just one moment in the struggle for emancipation, but the holiday gives us an occasion to reflect on the profound contributions of enslaved Black Americans to the cause of human freedom. It gives us another way to recognize the central place of slavery and its demise in our national story. And it gives us an opportunity to remember that American democracy has more authors than the shrewd lawyers and erudite farmer-philosophers of the Revolution, that our experiment in liberty owes as much to the men and women who toiled in bondage as it does to anyone else in this nation’s history.” Let the church, say Amen!