Emma hosts today’s Majority Report featuring a recent interview Sam recorded with Harvard history professor Annette Gordon-Reed on her new book, On Juneteenth, which explores the Texas roots and national consciousness of the holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the South. Beginning in the 1500s, Gordon-Reed walks us through the arrival of slavery in Texas with Spanish settlers, and its development as an Enslaver’s Republic as it broke away from Mexico and U.S. slaveholders ventured into the state to capitalize on the protection of the industry. Then, they discuss Gordon Granger’s arrival in Texas on June 19, 1865, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, and the active and direct removal of status from former slave owners and deliverance of autonomy to Black freed folk, before they move into the violence of reconstruction in Texas and the South. Professor Gordon-Reed then walks through the importance of Juneteenth since the arrival of Granger, with the purchasing of what would become Emancipation Park in Houston as a grounds for celebration directly following it, why this day, in particular, took off as a celebration of manumission, and how Juneteenth has come into more widespread popularity. They round out the discussion by touching on Gordon-Reed’s experience as one of the first Black students at her elementary school following Brown v. Board. Emma concludes the first half by watching Biden get stumped by U.S. history once again and come out against interference in foreign elections before she looks into Andrew Yang’s horrifying and violent dehumanization of homeless and mentally ill New Yorkers.

And in the Fun Half: Emma and Matt explore the absurdity of Q anon leadership, driven home by their lack of awareness on the 69/420 connection, and look into the history between Nicholas Wade, who propagated recent Covid Lab Leak theories, and Tucker Carlson’s favorite racial “scientist” (eugenicist), Charles Murray. Dave from Jamaica calls in to highlight the violent ridiculousness of relying on IQ, drawing direct parallels to those that see a correlation between ejaculatory capabilities and intelligence, before he jumps into the discussion of Andrew Yang’s property-over-people politics and the pro-police panic setting in amid misleading statistics from major cities. Then, the crew watches Dave Rubin compare the lack of an existential threat due to climate change to the lack of an existential threat in… Armageddon, and, after a little sports talk, Phil from Chicago calls in to discuss the threat the Thacker Pass project poses to indigenous communities in NV, plus, your calls and IMs!