Juneteenth: The Son of a Slave Reflects on the America He Sees Today

From the driver’s seat of his red 2014 Volvo, Dan Smith looked in on the huge protest thronging Sixteenth Street in the Northwest quadrant of Washington D.C. on Friday evening, June 5. Through the windows, he basked in all of the energy, all of the caring, all of the great messages — like the “Black and White Lives Together” sign held by his wife, Loretta Neumann.

The protest, of course, had grown out of the killing of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis. The gruesome eight minutes and forty-six seconds under Derek Chauvin’s knee were on everyone’s mind. The pleading about not being able to breathe. The desperate cry for help to his deceased mother. The big dark body, lifeless.

This grim moment had unleashed activism America had not seen in at least 50 years.

All the pent-up rage came spilling out. Read more ...

Dan Smith, left, with one of his heroes, Representative John Lewis (photo by Loretta Neumann)