This much-anticipated and highly-heralded national holiday has generated a spirit of solidarity and celebration whose likes of which have not been rivaled since the Dr. Martin Luther King’s holiday passed 38 years ago. Again, thanks to a public outcry that led to it. We watched superstar entertainer Stevie Wonder and many others relentlessly
work the plan and align in agreement against the odds. And it happened. Like the Dr. King holiday, the Juneteenth resolve represented a decades-long fight.
It is here that I consider the deeper meaning of the hashtag that I use often in social media, #legacymatters. While we are thanking the efforts of legislators, there is one man’s name I trust we shall not forget, Dr. Ronald V. Meyers.
While he passed away in 2018, he was the first to come to me with his campaign. Admittedly, it was less well-known than Stevie Wonder, but it was also prolific and constant in his communication to me and others he thought had networked.
Galvanized by our support and resolve, he stirred
the water and created the current environment that led to this legislation.
Thus, as we present you with this issue of the South Side Drive, written by youth in our Real Men Charities Summer Youth Career Employment program at the Quarry, I chose to acknowledge the drive of Dr. Meyers, who in 2008 TIME credited with a 15-year journey to have Juneteenth be a national holiday.
To give this issue life, we turned to our youth. To hear their voices and their perspectives and their unique take on how they are making a difference….an impact. So, as you flip through the magazine, we ask that you place it on a coffee table, beauty or barbershop, on a desk, or in some special
place for others to read. Please consider the name of our publication and the DRIVE of Dr. Meyers and countless groups in Chicago that have championed this legislation, particularly a new generation of folks with South Side Drive, The Black Mall. By now their Juneteenth Celebration is over, but the drive toward the holiday they’ve demonstrated from their Chicago offices deserves mention.
To our young writers, and our Associate Publisher, Dr.
Obari Cartman who led this June issue effort, let us all say a word of thanks and say a prayer that these young people are forever relentless in their love and appreciation for the possibility of fairness and equity.
And we must raise, acknowledge and celebrate them for their ability to make a difference.
