You probably know the story by now. Abraham Lincoln had announced the emancipation proclamation would go into effect January 1 1863 freeing all enslaved people. But for the enslaved West Africans in Texas they didn’t get word of this for two whole years. . .but on June 19th of 1865 freedom, was granted for all.

A part of emancipation is reclamation. So today let’s reclaim some of the narratives that diminished and downplayed the contributions of how the formerly enslaved West Africans and descendants shaped coffee and the outdoors.

Coffee history:

-By 1788 nearly half of the world’s coffee was coming from Haiti produced by the island’s 2 million enslaved West Africans.

-It is estimated that roughly a third of all West Africans brought to the Americas were brought to produce coffee.

-Coffee’s future potentially lies in West Africa where strains of coffee resistant to climate change have been “found”. (Found meaning I.e, non-Africans have discovered them)

Outdoor history:

-Charles Young, a man born into slavery who would become the first black National Park Superintendent in 1903

-Explorer and sailor George W. Gibbs, in 1940 became the first black man to step foot on Antarctica.

-Fur trapper James P. Beckwourth and Black frontier people like Nate Love and Stagecoach Mary and countless black cowboys helped shape the West.

-Black participation in the outdoors is one of the lowest of any group in America. Why? Here are clues.

-Gifford Pinchot, the first head of the US Forest service, was a known eugenicist believing outdoor spaces were for whites.

-In 1952 throughout the south there were 180 state parks available to whites only, while only 12 were designated for blacks only.

So today we say, The marathon continues.

Juneteenth, always and forever.