Lessons from Juneteenth: The military’s role in justice and freedom
Our armed forces should protect our democracy and shared freedoms, not strike fear in the hearts of Americans.
By Tianna Mays and Jonathan Barry-Blocker
The U.S. military should inspire us to honor the sons, daughters, and neighbors who step up to protect our democracy and shared freedoms, not strike fear in the hearts of Americans. Nor should it prop up authoritarian power. Yet President Donald Trump’s recent deployment of Marines to California attempted to do just that.
It was an audacious display and a brazen effort to refashion our military as a tool of domestic oppression rather than a force for ensuring freedom. Trump’s questionable actions in California threaten our relationship to our military and ignore its purpose. We must reject his attempt to divide us. On this Juneteenth—commemorating the day 2,000 Union soldiers (many Black) liberated enslaved Texans two years after the U.S. Civil War ended—we are reminded that our military does and must continue to protect us from tyranny.
Throughout our history, the U.S. military has played a critical role in advancing justice for marginalized communities. Like our nation, it is imperfect. But our military, when led by responsible commanders in chief, leads in helping us live up to our ideals. President Ulysses S. Grant deployed federal troops to protect freed Black citizens from domestic terrorism and political disenfranchisement in rebelling Southern states. Nearly 70 years later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and, later, President John F. Kennedy repeatedly sent troops to Southern states that resisted court-ordered school desegregation.
Our military has been a stalwart of justice and democratic principles, and it has protected and liberated people—not power.
Despite the Trump administration’s recent attempts to use our military as a political tool to sow discord and erase the contributions of Americans who do not fit a narrow idea of our nation, many Americans proudly recognize that diverse communities contribute to national stability. We acclaim domestic heroes like Harriet Tubman for being the only woman to lead a pivotal Civil War military operation and future U.S. Sen. Hiram Rhodes Revels for organizing two Black regiments in the Civil War. We honor regiments like the Buffalo Soldiers in the tumultuous American West and the Black-woman-led 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion during World War II for critical improvements to government infrastructure. We hail seaman Doris “Dorie” Miller, a cook untrained on anti-aircraft weaponry, for shooting down Japanese planes at Pearl Harbor. And we venerate the Tuskegee Airmen—a fighting force that included men from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Trinidad—for preserving the lives of fellow American fighter pilots from Nazis.
Our diversity is our strength. Foreign-born Americans account for 20 percent of all Medal of Honor recipients. Former leaders of the Joint Chiefs of Staff touted our military’s growing ethnic diversity and asserted to the U.S. Supreme Court that undermining this threatens progress and national security.
Yet Trump would tarnish our military’s vibrant history to push an agenda that vilifies American residents of color and the communities that embrace them. The military he abuses is vastly fortified by the very lives he seeks to silence. We stand against these ideas because it is anti-American, and the price to root out the poison of racialized supremacy is steep. We already paid those costs opposing Jefferson Davis, Benito Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler. And we defeated them.
Our military works better as a patriotic pathway to citizenship and belonging for many working families, the very people who seek equality and economic opportunities, just as our ancestors did. Trump’s attempt to pit Americans against Americans will not overshadow the overwhelming participation and contributions of soldiers of color to our nation. In the Civil War, escaped and free Blacks enlisted in the Union Army, even though it was not integrated, eventually comprising 10 percent of the freedom forces. They were critical to the Combahee River Raid and other battles. Today, Black people comprise 21 percent of the U.S. Army and have produced exceptional leaders, including Gen. Colin Powell, the son of Jamaican immigrants.
Approximately 45,000 immigrants serve in the U.S. military. Over the years, their growing presence translated to nearly 4.5% of U.S. veterans being born outside the U.S. Their inclusion enhances our nation. Since 2002, the U.S. has naturalized more than 187,000 servicemembers, with 16,290 naturalized in 2024 alone. These dedicated service members largely hail from the Philippines, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, and Ghana, as well as other nations such as Haiti and Cameroon, which Trump vilifies with anti-immigration policies.
No president should persecute the people who strengthen our national security, not when our military suffers from historic recruitment lows. No national leader should force soldiers to move against their own communities and allies.
Deploying Marines and California National Guardsmen to Los Angeles pitted our service members against their countrymen. It also undermined the decades-long work of thousands of service members, veterans, families, and leaders whose service has uplifted core constitutional values of life, liberty, and equality.
On Juneteenth, we celebrate freedom and resilience. This year, we also remember that our military is meant to promote justice and liberate communities that need it most. Service members swear an oath to defend the Constitution and obey a commander in chief who is called to do the same. They follow lawful orders, but their highest duty is to the democracy Juneteenth reminds us to protect.
Tianna Mays is the legal director at Democracy Defenders Fund. Jonathan Barry-Blocker is a policy counsel at Democracy Defenders Fund.
So wrong of our current president to erase records of our black soldiers and to fire top black officers. They are an important part of our country's history.
"Deploying Marines and California National Guardsmen to Los Angeles pitted our service members against their countrymen."
Uh, no. They were deployed because so-called "peaceful protesters" surrounded ICE agents and their facility, placing them in harm's way. California state law prevents law enforcement from assisting unless the federal agents are actually assaulted. The Guard and Marines were called in to protect federal personnel and facilities. Now if you have any evidence that any federal forces assaulted the protesters first, let us know.
"This year, we also remember that our military is meant to promote justice and liberate communities that need it most."
Again, no. In very basic terms, the military is meant to offer deterrence to those who would wish to harm this country. Should deterrence fail and our forces are ordered into combat, their mission is to hurt people and break stuff. The "promote justice" thing is for civil government.
"Service members swear an oath to defend the Constitution..."
So does every elected and non-elected member of government at all levels.