It was June 19, 1865, and slaves in Texas were finally receiving news of the Emancipation Proclamation’s signing, which had taken place over two years earlier, on January 1, 1863. The War ended April 9, 1865, the Lone Star state perpetrated and perpetuated the now obsolete Narrative of Chattel Slavery, another two and a half years after the proclamation’s signing. Henceforth, Juneteenth has been recently recognized as a national holiday. The founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Bryan Stevenson, said, “The North won the war, but the South won the narrative war.”

In 2020, what appeared to be a winning strategy —exposing and dismantling systemic racism —was getting a serious assessment. However, like calculated moves on a chessboard by the deception implementing fear, and narcissism, the Powerful manipulated the narrative into another backlash to not only affect African Americans, but also other communities of color, along with marginalized people across the board.

This June, not only does Three-Fifths Magazine explore how this happened, but more importantly, it explores how to flip the script and recapture the hearts, minds, and imaginations of millions of Americans of all backgrounds. Those answers are not easy ones to come by. They are not just political, but comprehensive, encompassing the preservation of history and culture through artistic expression, from the flat screen to the silver screen, as well as writing literature, from resistance to resilience, and spirituality, alongside a great deal of solidarity from allies and advocates. Together, as a collective voice of clarity, we believe the narrative is ours to write.