Juneteenth and the Reality of Black Citizens in Texas and San Antonio
San Antonio / 6/19/2025 - Juneteenth is often celebrated with parades, poetry, and prayer. It marks the day—June 19, 1865—when Union troops finally reached Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation and free the last enslaved Black Americans. For many, it represents the delayed promise of liberty. But for those of us living and working in Texas today, Juneteenth is not just a historical milestone—it’s a mirror reflecting how far we still have to go. Ironically the battle grounds are in San Antonio, Texas - the home of the nation's largest MLK March held each January.
Freedom Without Economic Equity Is Not True Freedom
In 2025, more than 150 years since that first Juneteenth, Black Texans still find themselves on the margins of the state’s economic systems. From access to homeownership and capital to city contracting and political power, disparities remain entrenched. We live in a state where some celebrate growth and prosperity, while others are systemically denied access to opportunity.
In San Antonio—one of the largest majority-minority cities in the nation—the contradiction is striking. We honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with one of the largest marches in the country, yet Black businesses in San Antonio continue to be locked out of city contracts, decision-making, and strategic investments.
The recent 2025 Utilization Report from the City of San Antonio’s Economic Development Department shows a stark reality:
- African American Business Enterprises (AABE): –0.5% decrease
- Native American Business Enterprises (NABE): –0.4% decrease
Meanwhile:
- M/WBE overall increased +9.1%
- S/M/WBE payments rose +10.1%
- ESBE (newly tracked) jumped +15.5%
These numbers don’t lie—they highlight a structural failure, not just a policy gap. The very communities Juneteenth was meant to liberate are still being left behind under today’s systems. In 2011, when Julian Castro was Mayor of the City of San Antonio, he authorized a pilot program to focus on Black business disparity and the inability of the city staff to do business with Black businesses. The disparity study, which showcased marketplace discrimination listed countless pages to problems Black owned businesses face. The City Staff removed disparity by contracting with Hispanic and White Women businesses at much higher participation who were recipients of race-conscious programming, however the very group that the nation's programs were created and modeled for, African American businesses, never achieved parity levels or any level of success.
The City Manager’s Discretion and a Shift in Power
While the city staff bragged about reaching higher goals with 52% utilization of minority firms, in the small print, they were saying we will leave race conscious tools, even as the Black businesses were first in line to be helped. The City Council trust and voted that the future for Black businesses would be in the hands of the City Manager and the Economic Development staff under "race-neutral" policy. In December 2024, the San Antonio City Council agreed with the staff recommendation and voted to expand the City Manager’s discretionary spending authority—allowing him to approve contracts up to $2 million without Council oversight and change the SBEDA ordinance race conscious program. The rationale was “efficiency.” The City Manager Erik Walsh even described $900,000 contracts as “mundane.”
But to small, Black-owned firms in San Antonio, $900,000 is not mundane—it’s transformative. It’s a storefront kept open, an employee hired, a family fed. That kind of tone-deafness from public officials underscores why our systems continue to reproduce exclusion even under the banner of reform.
City staff pushed this vote through just before Christmas 2024, minimizing public debate, and presented a 54-page overhaul of the SBEDA Ordinance without notifying the two Black chambers, the Fair Contracting Coalition, or minority business organizations with the details. Powerpoints were shared months prior, but the attached document was not. That’s not transparency—that’s deliberate exclusion.
And now, we’re told that our only role is to sit quietly while the City “briefs” us on how they plan to “implement” these changes.
The Danger of Symbolism Without Substance
Every Juneteenth, Black Texans are praised for their resilience, culture, and heritage. But we cannot live on symbolism alone. When race-neutral policy is used to quietly erase race-conscious progress, when performance data hides specific failures under general success, when city staff celebrate “record utilization” while Black businesses lose even more ground—we must speak up.
Juneteenth is not just a reminder of what was delayed in the past. It’s a warning about what is being delayed right now.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Members of the Fair Contracting Coalition and Black organizations are calling for bold action:
- 30% minimum of City Manager discretionary contracts allocated to certified M/WBEs
- Public scorecards disaggregated by race and gender
- Reinstated grace periods for certification renewal
- Suspend personal net worth thresholds & public release of personal net worth used in vendor disqualification
- A moratorium on enforcement of new certification barriers until true community review occurs
These demands are not radical. They are fair, data-driven, and urgent. Without them, projects like Project Marvel—a multi-million-dollar infrastructure opportunity—risk repeating the painful exclusion of Black contractors seen during the initial build of the Henry B. González Convention Center construction so many years ago. History is on the path to repeat itself!
Conclusion: Juneteenth Is Now
Juneteenth was never about celebrating a single moment in time. It is a call to action across generations. In Texas—and especially in cities like San Antonio—it must mean more than parades and proclamations.
It must mean putting equity into practice. It must mean structural reform over symbolic gestures. It must mean that Black and Native American business owners are not left behind in the very systems funded by their own tax dollars.
“As we implement our new supplier engagement strategy, a key focus area is targeted outreach to S/M/W/BEs to increase availability and make those businesses aware of contracting opportunities at the City.”
— Alex Lopez, Assistant City Manager, City of San Antonio
Rebuttal from Christopher C. Herring:
With all due respect to Assistant City Manager Lopez, this is not an issue of availability—this is an issue of access and accountability. We have Black- and Native-owned businesses in San Antonio that are ready, willing, and capable of delivering high-quality work. Many of them have years—even decades—of experience, proven track records, and a deep commitment to their craft and community.
The City doesn’t need another outreach strategy. We need an inclusion strategy that leads to actual contracts—not just email blasts and engagement sessions. Businesses have been attending pre-bid meetings, registering in supplier portals, and responding to solicitations—only to be shut out by shifting requirements, arbitrary disqualifications, and a lack of transparency in awards.
Availability is not the problem. The will to include us is.
If the City wants to honor the principles of equity this Juneteenth, it must move beyond awareness campaigns and start directing opportunities to the businesses that have already shown up, stepped up, and stayed ready—despite systemic exclusion.
We are not asking for favors. We are demanding fairness.
Where Do We Go From Here?
In “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?”, Dr. King wrote:
“The problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. … We must recognize that we can't solve our problems now until there is a radical redistribution of economic and political power.”
This was 1967.
In 2011, I was appointed to the City of San Antonio’s Small Business Advocacy Committee to begin addressing these very disparities. In 2018 and 2019, I chaired the Committee and helped usher in the Diversity Action Plan, which led to national recognition for our city—including an IEDC Gold Award for Inclusive Economic Development.
And yet, 14 years later, the data looks disturbingly familiar. Black-owned businesses (AABE) and Native American firms (NABE) remain at the bottom of the city's utilization rates. The city leadership has shifted—but the power structures and results remain the same.
Where do we go from here? In San Antonio, it’s clear:
We go backward if the Council allows unaccountable discretionary contracting to grow unchecked.
We go nowhere if the city continues to brief the community on flawed implementation plans instead of listening to the lived experience of business owners who have been excluded year after year.
But we can go forward—if bold leadership demands transparency, reinstates equity tools, and redirects taxpayer dollars with the intention to heal and include, not avoid and excuse.
Let Juneteenth 2025 be a turning point—not another missed opportunity. Mayor Jones and her City Council will meet on June 25, 2025 to hear implementation of the SBEDA Ordinance by the City Staff. You are encouraged to attend.
About the author:
Christopher C. Herring is the President of Global Chamber San Antonio, former Chairman of the City of San Antonio Small Business Advocacy Committee, and a founding member of the Fair Contracting Coalition. A retired U.S. Air Force officer and bestselling author, Herring has spent over two decades championing economic equity, small business development, and inclusive public policy. He is the publisher of River Walk Magazine and a former mayoral candidate committed to ending generational poverty and strengthening local opportunity for all communities. His work bridges civic leadership, international trade, and social justice across San Antonio and beyond.
