Juneteenth commemorates the anniversary of Union troops arriving in Galveston, Texas, and reading the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been originally issued in 1863, to enslaved Americans who were not yet free. Celebrated annually by many Black communities since 1865, Juneteenth is a day of reflection and celebration of Black American history, culture, and unique food traditions. This year, Juneteenth has been declared an official holiday in New York in recognition of our collective need to recognize Black freedom and to stand in solidarity against racism and racist violence. As veterans, we take this holiday to reflect on the profound history of Black New York veterans of the Civil War who served and sacrificed to make freedom and democracy possible for all of us. 

This week in NYC we are under the first curfew imposed on the city since the rioting in Harlem in August 1943 following the shooting of a Black soldier. As veterans, we believe the story of 1943 should be told. 

In November 1942, Private David Wood, assigned to the 9th Engineer Regiment at Fort Dix, New Jersey, was shot in his stomach by a police officer while he waited for tickets at a movie theater. Violence and discrimination against Black troops serving during World War II was pervasive not only in the South, but nationwide. Black veterans of World War I, especially those who served grueling months fighting on the front lines in Europe as Harlem Hellfighters, remembered clearly the discrimination and hatred they faced both during their service and upon their return home. The murder of Private Wood by a white policeman marked the tenth murder of a Black soldier since Pearl Harbor. 

America had seen decades of racial violence and rioting, and 1943 was especially violent. On June 15, 1943, thousands of white residents of Beaumont, Texas, destroyed and looted black businesses and homes over two days when a white woman stated that a black man had raped her, although no assailant was never identified. On June 20, 1943, Detroit erupted in racial violence as white aggression over racially integrated factory labor fomented a night of violence and retaliation, in which 17 Black residents were killed by police. The summer of 1943 was one in which Black communities across the country were tense and on edge as their young men were recruited to fight overseas and whole communities served in the broader war effort at home, despite the discrimination and violence they were forced to suffer.