969 Commemorating Juneteeth & Remembering We Still Have Work to Do

On today's 5-minute Friday, Lewis acknowledges Juneteenth, America's oldest national holiday commemorating the end of slavery. Then Reverend Michael Beckwith discusses ongoing systemic racism, and how we can start to heal this country.-For our full interview with Reverend Michael Beckwith: lewishowes.com/962-Text "podcast" to 614-350-9360 to start a conversation with Lewis Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is Five Minute Friday.

• 0:10Lewis Howes?

  I want to start the podcast today with a quote from James Henry Gooding, an African American man who served as a Union soldier in the Civil War. In a letter from the front, Gooding wrote, "The American people as a nation knew not what they were fighting for till recently, and many have different opinions now as to the ends and result of the contest. But there is but two results possible. One is slavery and poverty, and the other is liberty and prosperity." Today is Juneteenth, the oldest national holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.

• 0:52Lewis Howes?

  The celebration dates back to 1865 when African Americans in Galveston, Texas, were informed they were free, a full two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation and two months after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered. It's 155 years later, but we are still so far from achieving racial justice and equality in this country. And in this moment, Juneteenth isn't just a commemoration, it's a call to action. I've learned so much in the past few weeks about the history of Black Americans and the systemic racism that is still pervasive today.

• 1:34Lewis Howes?

  And educating myself about the significance of June 19th has been just a small part. But I know that my words on the subject can only go so far. So I'd love to bring you this clip from my recent interview with Reverend Michael Beckwith, who came on the School of Greatness just after George Floyd protest began.

• 1:56Speaker 01

  I do know that racism is alive. Racism is still alive. It's systemic in the culture. I mean, when you look at it from a historical context, you look at 1619, when the first, I don't like to call them slaves. I just say forced immigrants. You know, that they turned into slaves, arrived, and the United States wasn't even a union yet. You know, it took these Africans to Virginia. Thus began slavery. Now, the idea was, in order to justify it, the good Christian people at that time had to say they were less than human. They were like a horse, or a dog, you know, cow.

• 2:40Speaker 01

  So that way, they could abuse them, because they're not really abusing a human being. They're abusing these people from Africa that aren't human. So that became a part of the narrative within the fabric of our society. So then, when slavery was abolished, then you had the Jim Crow era. You had public lynchings of black men. But the point being, laws have come into effect to stop segregation, Jim Crowism, public lynching, slavery, etc. But the underlying narrative is still active in many people. So at this particular time in human history, you see that the veil has been lifted. So you actually see racial superiority.

• 3:25Speaker 01

  You see the supremacist rising up. Being very bold, like they were in Charleston. They were very bold about who they are. Why do you feel like they're showing up that way? I think it's two reasons. One, we're in a moment of, we're in an apocalyptic moment, the apocalypse, which means, apocalypse simply means the lifting of the veil. When you lift up the veil, it means what was hidden is now visible. So, all these things that have been hidden for a long time, or denied, or people saying, "You're exaggerating," we can now see it.

• 3:59Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  You know?

• 4:00Lewis Howes?

  They're saying, "Oh, this was just..." I'm seeing all these videos, saying if it wasn't on videotape, you wouldn't believe it.

• 4:04Speaker 01

  You wouldn't even believe it. "Oh, you're exaggerating, you're making that up."

• 4:07Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 4:08Speaker 01

  You know, so I think because of the energy of people on the planet who have been praying and meditating and doing spiritual work, the planet itself raising its vibration, things are easier to be seen. So, all of this can be seen now, which was hidden before. And, and so, that's the good and bad news.

• 4:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Social media as well, being a landscape for people, every person to have a voice publicly and show these things.

• 4:32Speaker 01

  Right. So, the good news is we see it. You know, the bad news, it exists. The good news is, once you, you can't heal something that you're denying. If you deny that you have cancer, you know, "No, that's just a pain in my knee," or whatever, and you know, "Go check." You know, that's not going to heal it by you denying that you have an issue. You have to actually examine it and see it, and then provide what is necessary for your healing. So, now that we can actually see abusive power and force by police departments, we can actually see racism, now we can begin to have a conversation as to how to dismantle it.

• 5:11Lewis Howes?

  This is just the tip of the iceberg, and if you haven't listened to the full interview with Reverend Beckwith, it's included in the podcast description, along with a resource to learn more about Juneteenth. I'm so grateful that you took some time to listen today and become a part of the School of Greatness community and family. If this is your first time here, please click the subscribe button and leave us a review and share this with a friend, as we're all about amplifying black voices while being conscious and bringing love and compassion and inspiration to the world.

• 5:50Lewis Howes?

  Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you've enjoyed this Five Minute Friday. As always, check out LewisHouse.com for more School of Greatness inspiration, and find me on social media @LewisHouse. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.