Freedom Requires Follow-Through: Why Juneteenth Still Confronts the Corporate World

On June 19, 1865 — more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation — over 250,000 enslaved people in Texas finally learned they were free. That delay wasn’t just administrative. It was intentional, profit-driven, and protected by systems that knew exactly what they were doing.

Sound familiar?

In recent years, many companies made bold promises in the name of racial equity and inclusion. Yet when the cultural climate shifted, so did their commitment. Entire DEI departments were slashed. Initiatives were quietly renamed. In some cases, the efforts disappeared altogether.

Predictably, this retreat began within the U.S. government.

History reminds us that in America, rights can be granted — and then quietly revoked. Promises of “liberty and justice for all” have often been followed by legal loopholes that deny that justice to some. Consider the Reconstruction Era: a brief window of progress for African Americans after the Civil War, swiftly shut by the rise of Jim Crow. Freedoms that had just been fought for — with blood, lives, and courage — were stripped away almost overnight.

With that context in mind, at SRD, we see this recent workplace retreat for what it is: If it was easy to abandon, it was never anchored in purpose.

This Juneteenth, we challenge organizations not just to post quotes or host panels—but to evaluate their legacy.

• Are your efforts built for headlines or for healing?

• Do your values only show up when it’s safe to share them?

• Will your leadership speak when the crowd goes silent?

  
  

We don’t do diversity for the applause. We do it because equity is the engine of excellence. Conflict? That’s not the problem. Avoidance is. Juneteenth is more than a milestone. It’s a mirror — and some organizations are afraid of what they’ll see.