Juneteenth, first commemorated in 1866, marks the end of slavery in the United States. On the day of June 19th in 1865, 250,000 enslaved Black people in Galveston finally received the news that they were free — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. This day was first recognized as a federal holiday in June 2021 when the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act was signed.
Everyone has to be part of the conversation, whether they are families of color or not. Because everyone has to be part of the solution. It’s important for families who aren’t families of color to talk about privilege and how to be anti-racist.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Khadijah Booth Watkins, MD MPH, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Mass General and the Associate Director of the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds shares her insights on how to talk to kids about Juneteenth and how to continue discussions around racism and anti-racism throughout the year
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How and why to discuss Juneteenth with your children (The Washington Post)
Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins is Associate Director of the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds and the Associate Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency Training Program of Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital. In addition, she provides clinical care to children, adolescents, and families in the Child Outpatient Clinic and continues to teach and supervise fellows, residents, and medical students.
