No Kings

America is celebrating Juneteenth, a rather new federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of American slaves, and an occasion which this year coincides with a military parade commemorating the 250th Anniversary of the U.S. Army in the nation’s capital; President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday; the National Guard and the Marines (USMC) being unleashed onto the streets of Los Angeles; and some 2000 immigration protests across 50 states described as a "day of defiance to reject authoritarianism.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids targeting undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles triggered protests on 6 June. Some 1000 protestors gathered around a 5-block radius in downtown LA and vandalized public property, assaulted police officers, and ravaged at least 23 businesses. In a rare and controversial exercise of executive power, President Trump federalized the National Guard and USMC which sparked outcry from protestors in LA that spread to all 50 states.

Walmart heiress Christy Walton, worth an estimated $19.4 billion, paid for a full-page ad on Tuesday in the New York Times calling on readers to “mobilize” on Saturday. Indivisible, a progressive movement in reaction to the 2016 election of Donald Trump, organized the “No Kings” movement months ago to coincide with the Army’s military parade. However, it was galvanized by Trump’s response to the immigration related protests in LA, uniting protestors across the nation to defend a country they believe has turned authoritarian. A nation whose very grasp of the notion can be traced to the Father of the Nation.

Though George Washington publicly denounced the slave trade on moral grounds in the Fairfax Resolves, the American slave of which he so gallantly spoke wouldn’t actually celebrate their freedom until 19 June 1866 — 1 day, two weeks, and 90 years after everyone else. In fact, a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of American slaves wasn’t created until 2021, a couple hundred years and change after some 56 signatories signed on to the Declaration of Independence.

The American Colonies were reluctant to form a union in 1776. Each, as then, were operating as a sovereign nation. Where they agreed was a touchstone called 'equality,' and on their collective independence from Great Britain. Originally drafted as instruction for Virginia's delegates to the Continental Congress in 1774, Thomas Jefferson's pamphlet begins circulating throughout the Thirteen Colonies and stirs consensus. It began:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The Declaration of Independence in 1776 was drafted as the nation’s mission statement the following year. The first U.S. federal government comes into force under the Articles of Confederation in 1781, but the document itself says nothing about slavery, instead handing the power to regulate slavery to the states. Each and all enshrine indentured servitude and slavery into their state constitutions for the next 100+ years.

Abraham Lincoln was the first to federalize state militias (which were the precursor to the modern National Guard) during the American Civil War. In April 1861, he called up 75,000 militia members to suppress the Confederacy's rebellion. On 1 January 1863, Lincoln’s Executive Order (Proclamation 95) frees southern slaves to fight for the union, and enforcing their freedom relied upon the presence of Union troops, including members of the United States Colored Troops, who on 19 June 1865 arrived in Galveston to administer Reconstruction. Though Lincoln single handedly emancipated American slaves with the stroke of a pen, winning their freedom and enforcing it required calling forth a militia upon the America people.

Authorized by Congress through the Militia Acts of 1792 — to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions — US Presidents have activated US Troops on American soil 7 times. From desegregation at Little Rock, to MLK's Selma to Montgomery march, this week’s execution of the Militia Act seemed like something more than a warning shot.

“Democracy is under assault,” Governor Gavin Newsom told to Californians this week. “What we’re witnessing is not law enforcement. It’s authoritarianism.”

Despite Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday in 2021, wealth disparity, poverty rates, bankruptcy, housing patterns, educational opportunities, unemployment, incarceration and mortality rates among Blacks remain disproportionate for a nation that prides itself on equality. As to the day, Elizabeth Washington put it this way on the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture page:

We didn't ask for a holiday, Joe. We are asking for rectifying the cause and effect and getting the racism out of govt and police departments, banks, courts and start addressing racism as terrorists attacks. Instead you've irritated and brought out more ignorance from people we interact w/ daily.

In 2023, seven US Army bases named for Confederate generals were renamed to honor other military figures. “We are restoring the names of all seven remaining military installations formerly named after Confederate generals,” the Pentagon announced this week, but does airbrushing either Union or Confederate generals from public view serve American history? Michelle Obama explains, "I am the former First Lady of the United States and I am also a descendent of slaves. My great grandmother (Melvinia Shields) was in bondage in South Carolina. It's important to keep that truth right there.”

More than 150 years after the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States, most agree the institution has and continues to shape the American Way. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 lifted Blacks from poverty and into the middle class with an Equal Employment Opportunity mandate, but did the EEOC’s footprint of DEI initiatives over the next 60 years coerce equality through the very same practice of discrimination? Does whitewashing the pump make the water pure?

Though Lincoln single handedly emancipated American slaves with the stroke of a pen in 1863, winning their freedom and enforcing it required calling forth a militia upon the America people.

In 1776, the newly christened United States of America had 2.5 million residents of which 500,000 were African American slaves. Of the nation’s estimated 347 million people today, only 48.3 million are Black. That's because their mortality rate is higher, 1.63 million times higher relative to White Americans over the last two decades, according to JAMA. Americans have 10 times the wealth of Black Americans; Black women die in childbirth at three to four times the rate of White women; and 1 in 3 Black men will likely enter the criminal justice system at some point during their lifetime.

The seeds of disparity were not only supplanted into American soil by the nation’s founders, but tilled by subsequent generations to tinder legal, economic, and political advantages to Whites. About 51,000 undocumented migrants are in detention centers now, according to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). White House officials hope ICE can scale up to 3,000 arrests a day, and the impending “One Big Beautiful Bill” will bankroll another $168 billion to target Trump’s projected goal of 15 million for deportation.

The Militia Act of 1792, signed by President George Washington, provided the legal framework for the President to call upon state militias to enforce federal laws, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions. This was precisely the institution he used to control his slaves, and even tho the Father of the Nation ordered all 123 of his enslaved servants free upon his death — shunting them all rather suddenly from Mount Vernon on 22 May 1802 to scramble for food, shelter, and survival against their White counterparts — providing a warm welcome or even a sack lunch for the road might've been the more American thing to do.