Today’s acknowledgment of the symbolic gesture of the ending of slavery in Texas in 1865 is welcomed. However, a lot has happened over the past 159 years, culminating with the election of the first Black POTUS. The run up to that monumental achievement suggests change was slow (the red summer of 1919, kkk, lynchings, bombings, Jim Crow, etc), and remain as one of the greatest societal and cultural challenges going into the 21st century. In 2024, if race-baiting is still a thing, being weaponized in politics and by foreign adversaries, attacks on voting rights, and affirmative action, says there is still work to be done.