By LUIS ANDRES HENAO, EMILY LESHNER, and GARY FIELDS
Associated Press

Christopher Johnson says he once saw Juneteenth as a celebration, a symbol that African Americans had moved past the “stain” of racism and slavery. The co-pastor of Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Houston says the deaths this year of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Rayshard Brooks, at the hands of law enforcement and self-styled neighborhood vigilantes are turning the holiday into a time of reflection and a reminder every generation has to fight for its freedom and that freedom is never really won. In many ways, he says, the U.S. of 1865 is the U.S. of 2020.

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