Chains and Choices: Will We Break or Build?

Freedom has never been free. For our people, it has always come at the cost of chains broken, blood spilled, and choices made in the shadow of oppression. From the very first enslaved Africans brought to Virginia in 1619, survival meant deciding how to live within captivity. Enslaved men and women chose to preserve fragments of African languages, foodways, and spiritual practices. Even in chains, they chose culture. They chose legacy. They chose survival.

When Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it was celebrated as a turning point. But freedom did not arrive wrapped in justice or equality. It arrived tangled in new systems of control — Reconstruction’s false starts, Black Codes that criminalized free movement, and Jim Crow laws that dictated every corner of Black life. For generations, our freedom was conditional, and the choices before us were framed by barriers designed to keep us bound.

Still, the story of Black America is a story of choice in the face of limitation. Harriet Tubman chose to risk everything, returning again and again to free others on the Underground Railroad. The men who fled to Union lines during the Civil War, in what became the “Contraband Decision” at Fort Monroe, chose liberation over enslavement, forcing the Union to confront freedom as both a moral and military necessity. Even in the 20th century, Black veterans returning from World War II chose to fight for civil rights, even as the GI Bill was unequally distributed.

Although the chains have shifted forms, but they are still present. Today, mass incarceration, systemic inequities in education, and underfunded communities act as modern shackles. Yet we continue to face choices — choices about how we use our voices, where we invest our dollars, and how we carry forward the stories entrusted to us.

Economically, the stakes are clear. Black Americans wield over $1.6 trillion in annual spending power. (McKinsey & Co., 2023.) Yet a 2022 Brookings analysis found that wealth gaps remain staggering: the median Black household holds only 15% of the wealth of the median white household. Historically, communities like Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma — known as “Black Wall Street” — circulated Black dollars for nearly a year before that money left the community.(Smithsonian, 2021.) Today, that circulation is measured in mere hours. Sometimes measured in minutes, if you count the income tax refund checks dash. Our choices about where we spend and reinvest determine whether we repeat cycles of dependency or build cycles of empowerment.

The question of freedom is not simply one of remembrance, but of responsibility. If our ancestors chose survival in chains, what are we choosing with freedom? Will we allow distraction, disunity, and systemic pressure to dictate our futures? Or will we be intentional about building culture, preserving history, and teaching our children the weight of legacy?

Freedom is not a static gift; it is a living choice renewed every day. It is found in the grandmother who tells family stories at the dinner table, the teenager who decides to pursue leadership instead of giving in to stereotypes, the activist who registers voters, and the parent who chooses to support Black-owned businesses. Each act is a decision to expand the boundaries of freedom, to ensure that it is more than a word written in history books.

The chains of yesterday whisper, but the choices of today shout. Our ancestors are listening. The future is watching. And every choice we make today writes the story of what freedom will mean tomorrow.

📚 Sources

• Brookings Institution. Examining the Black-White Wealth Gap. 2019, 2022.

• McKinsey & Company. The Economic State of Black America in 2023.

• Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Tulsa’s Black Wall Street. 2021.

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