Hail and well met, Pathfinders!
Paizo’s offices are closed today in honor of Juneteenth National Independence Day (Juneteenth). This holiday celebrates the true end of chattel slavery in the United States, when the Emancipation Proclamation was enforced in Texas at the end of the Civil War.

Juneteenth celebrations date back to 1866—the first year following the freeing of slaves in Texas. Beginning with Texas in 1938, Juneteenth was eventually recognized as a state holiday by all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In 2021, Juneteenth National Independence Day became a federally recognized holiday in the United States.

Black communities around the United States and Mexico celebrate Juneteenth in a variety of ways, from rodeos and picnics to poetry readings, music festivals, and more. Above all, Juneteenth is a celebration of Black art, music, culture, and freedom.

To see if a Juneteenth event is happening near you and get involved, take a look at the Worldwide Event Listings on Juneteenth.com.

If you can, donating time, money, or other resources to a Black-focused organization is a great way to celebrate Juneteenth! Here are some recommended organizations actively working to support Black communities:

• National Black Child Development Institute
• Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
• Color of Change
• The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• The Marsha P. Johnson Institute
• National Black Justice Coalition

Take a moment today to reflect on what freedom means—and how that freedom was granted to different groups of people over time. In the words of Black feminist and activist Fannie Lou Hamer, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

In solidarity,

Rue Dickey
Marketing & Media Specialist

Juneteenth Flag, credit Nafsadh, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”

—General Order No. 3; Galveston Texas, June 19, 1865
https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/juneteenth.html

While many American history classes conflate Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation with the end of slavery, it took several years before the order reached states like Texas—and it wasn’t until June 19th, 1865 that slavery was properly abolished. It should also be noted that while slavery was banned as an institutional practice, it still exists in the prison industrial complex and disproportionately affects Black Americans.

Black communities nationwide have celebrated Juneteenth for decades, but it was adopted as a national holiday in 2021 (and celebrated as a state holiday in some states prior to that). This year’s theme is Waves of Freedom—honoring the history of Black Americans and affirming every person’s right to equity and dignity.

Fannie Lou Hamer at a protest, credit to William J. Smith.
“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” —Fannie Lou Hamer

In celebration and solidarity, take some time today to support Black-owned businesses, organizations, and individuals in your community. Take a look at the US Chamber of Commerce’s directory of Black-owned businesses or do a search for a directory in your area. Consider donating to a charity that works for the freedom, empowerment, and success of Black Americans, just a few of which are listed here:

• NAACP Legal Defense Fund
• Southern Poverty Law Center
• National Black Child Development Institute
• National Black Justice Coalition
• The Loveland Foundation

Monetary support isn’t the only way to show up for Black communities on Juneteenth. Check with your local NAACP branch for volunteer opportunities or events happening this month. This holiday is a celebration—and a reminder that slavery’s impacts are far from gone.

In solidarity,

Rue Dickey
Marketing & Media Specialist

Juneteenth Flag, credit Nafsadh, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Juneteenth, or Emancipation Day, celebrates June 19, 1865, the day when the last slaves in the United States were finally informed they were free. The road from the first Juneteenth to today wasn’t smooth or easy. Last year, I wrote a blog about the history of Juneteenth, which you can find here, but this year, I wanted to talk a bit about what we can do on Juneteenth now, in the present day, and in the future.

So, how can we celebrate Juneteenth? How do we commemorate a day fraught with so much pain and suffering? One of the best ways we can celebrate Emancipation Day is by educating ourselves about the history of our country that we didn't learn about in school. The contributions of Black people to every aspect of our nation, be it socially, culturally, philosophically, or technologically, are tremendous. Thankfully, there are lot of resources out there! Annually, New York hosts a 3-day Juneteenth summit with talent shows, health and wellness screenings, educational activities and more. This year, like last year, the summit is online, making it accessible regardless of location. Likewise, this year, the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture presents programming that highlights both the history of the holiday and stories of the people who lived it.

Another way we can celebrate the holiday is by going out and supporting Black businesses. Buy a gift from a marginalized creator. Eat at a Black-owned restaurant. Many organizations maintain lists of local businesses owned by Black proprietors—here in Seattle, we have the Seattle Good Business Network, so check to see if a similar resource exists for your area! On a larger scale, the US Chamber of Commerce wrote an article featuring 8 rosters of Black businesses.

Our own industry, tabletop RPGs, has its own history of erased Black innovators, creators, and personalities. We can help reform the industry by learning about Black people in the industry and the ways they influence and shape not just the games we love, but the communities we participate in. There are a number of games and settings being made by Black creators right now. Look at them, learn about them, talk about them with your friends, engage with them, and if you're making them, keep making them! One I've been following recently is Into the Motherlands.

UNIA Flag (Pan-Africa Flag), credit Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Last week, Congress moved to make Juneteenth a national holiday, something it should have been since 1865. At this point, it needs President Biden’s signature, and it is likely that in the next few days this will occur (Update: it did! Juneteenth is now a national holiday!). That’s an important thing, but it is also important to remember that we have to go beyond just performance. Our country still struggles with not just the legacy of slavery, but ongoing slavery and systemic racism in the form of our prison and economic systems. Commemorating one of the most important days in our nation’s history with a national holiday is a valuable first step in moving forward, be we can’t let it be a symbol of the defeat of racism, or let it convince us that the injustices, the horrors, inflicted on the Black community are behind us, because neither of those things are true. When the holiday is past, we should keep doing the things we did during it: keep pushing for change, keep demanding justice, keep supporting Black businesses, and keep learning.

Diego Valdez
Customer Service Lead

Juneteenth is a holiday that doesn’t get the recognition or celebration it deserves. We celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation as when enslaved African Americans were freed in the United States. But the road there was a lot more complicated—emancipation took years to happen. Juneteenth is the day we celebrate the true end of slavery in the US, or at least the day the last of the slaves in the country were told that they were free, which came more than two and¬ a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. This Juneteenth, we wanted to take the time to introduce the holiday to those who may not be as familiar with it.

On September 22, 1862, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect on January 1, 1863. This was one of the most important moments in our nation’s history, but despite what we may have learned in school, this wasn’t the end of slavery. Particularly in states still in rebellion, the only freedom was in escaping to the Union, a tremendously dangerous journey. It wasn’t until the end of the Civil War that the Confederate states were forced to comply with the newly ratified Thirteenth Amendment (which was passed in January of 1865, but didn’t go into effect until December of that year). Even then, the news traveled slowly, and some states refused to even tell slaves that they were free. It wasn’t until Texas, the last holdout, finally complied that the slavery in the United States of the time came to an end (though modern-day slavery that disproportionally targets Black people still exists through our prison system and laws that allow it as punishment for crimes). On June 19th, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger issued the following order to the people of Texas:

“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”

—General Order No. 3; Galveston Texas, June 19, 1865
https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/juneteenth.html

Growing up outside the Black community, I was taught that the Emancipation Proclamation was the end of slavery. It wasn’t. It’s easy for many of us to think that emancipation happened quickly and easily. It didn’t. It took over two and half years after the proclamation for the enslaved people of Texas to be freed—and to this day, we are still struggling with the horrific legacy of slavery, and the treatment of the Black community is far from equal. This second—and in my opinion the true, Independence Day—should always have been a major national holiday. It is one of the most important days in our history, yet we as a nation have mostly, predictably, either forgotten or refused to celebrate it. Thankfully, that’s slowly starting to change. Today, 47 states have recognized Juneteenth as a state holiday or day of remembrance. But it has yet to become a major national holiday.

If you’d like to read more about Juneteenth, check out these links:

• https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lkj01
• https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/juneteenth-birth-african-american-holiday-2/
• https://ccrjustice.org/juneteenth-celebrating-black-resistance-dreams-freedom
• https://blackiowa.org/juneteenth/

Paizo has joined several other companies in the Fight for Racial Justice Humble Bundle, 100% of whose sales go to charities working toward racial justice. You can adjust your contribution to any combination you’d like of Race Forward (https://www.raceforward.org/), The Bail Project (https://bailproject.org/), and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (https://www.naacpldf.org/). You can find the Humble Bundle here: https://www.humblebundle.com/fight-for-racial-justice-bundle

Diego Valdez
Customer Service Representative