This year, Michigan United’s annual Juneteenth celebrations will be marked by a “Week of Resistance” around Metro Detroit to denounce President Donald Trump’s actions against immigration, health care as well as diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives nationwide.
Michigan United is a statewide organization of churches, labor and community groups dedicated to democracy and ensuring the protection of civil rights. Each year, members gather to celebrate Juneteenth, a commemoration of the day enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas were informed of their freedom, two years after the Emancipation Proclomation in 1863 declared enslaved people in the Confederate states free.
In place of the typical atmosphere of celebration the holiday carries all across the country, community members are gathering to oppose “Trump administration’s unprecedented attacks on civil rights,” Michigan United organizers said Friday.
“This is to show people they can rise up,” said Micah Whittaker, Michigan United’s community engagement director. “This is our time to celebrate something bigger than us.”
Trump’s second presidential term has brought efforts such as purging programs, policies, books, and social media mentions of any references to diversity, equity and inclusion; issuing executive orders related to the transgender community, including one to move transgender women into men’s prisons; pulling federal funding for gender-affirming care for transgender youths; as well as threatening to defund universities that refuse to quell protests and retract DEI initiatives.
Trump, a Republican, has said that whether a person is a man or woman is determined by that person’s biological characteristics at birth, and about two-thirds of U.S. adults agree with him, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. He has denounced DEI policies as a form of discrimination that threatens merit-based decision-making.
A growing number of businesses and higher-education institutes have withdrawn their DEI programs or closed DEI offices, including the University of Michigan.
This week, the Trump administration faced controversy over the president’s decision to send federal troops to southern California amid protests related to federal immigration raids. The administration has said it is willing to send troops to other cities to assist with immigration enforcement and controlling disturbances.
On Friday, the Associated Press reported Trump’s administration has provided deportation officials with personal data — including the immigration status — on millions of Medicaid enrollees.
Meanwhile, Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” that passed in the U.S. House last month proposes new 80-hour monthly work or community service requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients, age 18 to 64, with some exceptions. It also imposes twice-a-year eligibility verification checks and other changes.
“With them trying to impede on Medicare and Medicaid cuts, along with (rises in) immigration and deportations, along with all (Trump’s) executive orders affecting so many people who live either at the poverty line or under the poverty line and are not getting due process, we’re just doing this event to tell them that you don’t have to accept this, that you don’t have to lie down and be beat,” Whittaker said. “There are so many barriers in place, in the way of opportunities that people should have, because pulling up your bootstraps just doesn’t work.”
On Friday, in conjunction with co-sponsors Oakland Forward, Black Women’s Roundtable, Church of the Messiah, Our Own Wallstreet, the Michigan Coalition on Black Civic Participation and the Detroit Council of Baptist Pastors & Vicinity, Michigan United held its Resistance Summit at Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church in Westland. The teach-in explored the African-American experience through art, history and theology discussions.
“Juneteenth represents the day that all Black people were free of repression and suppression,” Whittaker said. “This is the time that people should be able to say that I’m a person of color, and I’m angry. Instead of shooting off fireworks and celebrating Independence Day …, this is our time to come together and say, ‘Okay, we’re not going to accept the norm. We’re not accepting the status quo. We’re making our own.’ “
The week is set to feature additional resistance events across Metro Detroit, such as protesting and urging boycotts in front of businesses that have rescinded their DEI policies.
Throughout the week, protesters will offer people alternative places to shop at Black-owned businesses, Michigan United said.
Michigan United’s Juneteenth week closes on June 21 with an annual cookout at Inkster Park featuring a live DJ, dancing, volleyball and traditional African-American foods.
The Associated Press contributed
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