What is Juneteenth? Juneteenth is a day that honors and celebrates Black liberation. The holiday dates back to June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas received word that the war had ended and that all enslaved people were now free. This was a full two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Though… Continue Reading Juneteenth: Celebrate Black freedom and fight against racism
By: Belen de Leon, YWCA Columbus Program Coordinator June 15, 2022 marks the tenth anniversary of DACA, the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. YWCA Columbus celebrates this milestone by revisiting DACA’s history and impact, and by joining DACA recipients in calling for much-needed change to our immigration system. What is DACA? Deferred Action… Continue Reading 10th Anniversary of DACA: it was never enough
By: Klarke Griffith (she/hers), 2nd year- 2024, Major: Politics, Philosophy, and Economics with a specialization in Law, Policy, and Governance Lalitha Pamidigantam, Policy Advisor, YWCA Columbus Throughout history, Black women have steadily led the way to liberation. From the abolition of slavery to Black Lives Matter, Black women have played pivotal roles in our history… Continue Reading Black History Month: the living legacy of Black women’s leadership
By: Lalitha Pamidigantam, YWCA Columbus Policy Analyst Belen de Leon, YWCA Columbus Program Coordinator YWCA Columbus recognizes that the history of Thanksgiving has historically been revised to erase Indigenous voices and experiences. As an antiracist agency that stands on the stolen land of the Kaskaskia people, Shawnadasse Tula (Shawanwaki/Shawnee), Myaamia, and the Hopewell, we are aware that anti-Indigenous racism is embedded… Continue Reading An acknowledgement of the trauma caused by the myth of Thanksgiving
(part 2 of a 2 part series) By: Belen de Leon, YWCA Columbus Program Coordinator Marisa Garverick Herrera, YWCA Columbus Program Manager Lalitha Pamidigantam, YWCA Columbus Policy Analyst In Part One of our series on Hispanic Heritage Month, we examined Latinx identity and discussed the experiences and struggles of Latinx people in Ohio and across… Continue Reading A Brief History of state-sanctioned violence and discrimination against Latinx People in the United States