In honor of Juneteenth, let’s abolish Police & Prisons.

Policing and mass incarceration are vestiges of chattel slavery. This Juneteenth, let’s discuss continuing the Abolitionist Movement to its completion.

Today, we commemorate the end of chattel slavery in the United States. Juneteenth, in the last ten years, has gone from a niche holiday that not even every Black person in America knew about to a federal holiday. With this sudden mainstream attention also comes distractions and unintended consequences. Corporations are trying to market our liberation back to us. At the same time, politicians point to Juneteenth’s national recognition as a sign of progress while making no material strides toward actual racial justice. We must not allow these distractions to make us lose sight of what today is actually about. Juneteenth is a testament to what’s possible when ordinary people unite in defiance of the legal system to do what’s morally right.

Without the collective courage, determination, and coordination of the Abolitionist Movement, Juneteenth would never have been possible. Long before the first canons went off at Fort Sumter, righteously outraged people throughout America were waging a war against the…