Southern Center for Human Rights

On June 19, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas learned they were free. Juneteenth reminds us that freedom has never arrived all at once. It has always required people willing to fight for it, protect it, and extend it to others.

At the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR), we see that truth every single day. Through Project Freedom, SCHR has helped nearly 100 men and women across the Deep South return home after serving extreme prison sentences. One of those men is James Dennard.

After spending 24 years in prison serving a life without parole sentence, Mr. Dennard was resentenced and released in 2017. Today, he is a homeowner, a supervisor, a mentor, and a source of support for others navigating reentry. Knowing firsthand that community leads to stability, Mr. Dennard helps people, including two former SCHR clients, find stable employment because he understands that freedom is more than release. It’s the opportunity to build a life.

His story reminds us that liberation is not just a moment in history. It’s an ongoing responsibility. As we commemorate Juneteenth, we honor the tradition of freeing one another and lifting up stories like Mr. Dennard’s. We name that today’s carceral system is a direct descendent of the same systems of racial justice that made Juneteenth necessary. And we press forward with the knowledge that the struggle for true freedom continues.

As poet Gwendolyn Brooks wrote, “We are each other’s harvest. We are each other’s business. We are each other’s magnitude and bond.”

May we carry that spirit forward not only today, but every day.