Opinion

Opinion: ‘Equal Pay, Equal Pay, Equal Pay’

Published

7 years ago

July 14, 2019

As the exhausted and thrilled U.S. women’s soccer team celebrated its victory in the finals of the 2019 Women’s World Cup, the cheers of the crowd in the Stade of Lyon soon turned into a chant: “Equal Pay, Equal Pay, Equal Pay.”

Even as they fought their way to the fourth U.S. Women World Cup championship, the U.S. team was waging a battle — in the court of public opinion and the courts of law — for equal treatment in wages, working conditions and investment in the women’s game. And if there is any justice or common sense in the team’s employer, U.S. Soccer, they will be as victorious in the quest for equal pay as they were in their quest for the World Cup.

These are truly American champions. It took immense courage — and no small amount of moxie — to file a class-action lawsuit — joined by all 28 members of the team — alleging gender discrimination by their employer only 93 days before their opening match in the World Cup. This only added immensely to the pressure on them to succeed on the field.

They would be playing for their country, for themselves, but also for all those who will come after them.

One of their leaders — Megan Rapinoe — won the “golden boot” as the top scorer in the World Cup, as well as the Most Valuable Player Award. She accomplished this even while expressing her own values. Trump criticized her for deciding not to sing the national anthem. She announced that she wasn’t interested in going to the White House. Her lavender hair symbolized her celebration of LGBTQ rights.

She naturally became a target of some on the right. She dismissed charges that she was unAmerican: “I’m particularly uniquely and very deeply American. If we want to talk about the ideals we stand for, the song and the anthem, and what we were founded on, I think I’m extremely American.”

She surely got that right. She also had the unified support of her teammates, who praised her as a “warrior” on and off the field, calling it a privilege to be her teammate.

As Christen Press put it, “It’s been beautiful to see her fearlessness as we get to the highest level and the highest stages, that she doesn’t back away, she doesn’t shy, but the opposite: She gets even bigger.”

As did the entire U.S. women’s team. Inspired by the example set by Billie Jean King and Venus Williams in women’s tennis, they took on their employers, criticized FIFA for its unequal treatment of the women’s game, and stood up for equal rights, waging a fight that would benefit their successors if not them.

As Alex Morgan, one of the team’s biggest stars stated, “My hope is that we have equality within football in my career, but I think ultimately it would be good in my lifetime. Even if I don’t reap the benefits, my hope is that the next generation’s sole focus is what it’s meant to be: And that is to play football.”

On Wednesday, the champions were celebrated with a classic Manhattan tickertape parade through the “canyon of heroes” on Broadway. The cheers were deafening; confetti filled the air. Lavender hairdos were seen throughout the crowd. And once more the chant began: “equal pay, equal pay, equal pay.”

Let us all pay tribute to the skill, the courage and the grit of these remarkable young women. They won the cup, even as they waged the fight for justice. They have inspired an entire generation of youngsters who watched their epic play on the field. They have earned the respect of their peers across the world.

Remarkably, the Dutch team posted its own tribute video to the American women before the final game, stating, “You showed us where dedication and ambition can bring you.”

Inspired by the Americans, the level of play is rising across Europe and across the world. And now we must all support them to ensure that they gain justice at home even as they have gained victory abroad.

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

Posts by Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

Arts and Culture

COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

3 days ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.