Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a public affairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting you. This week, here's Ryan Gorman. Thanks so much for joining us here on iHeartRadio Communities. I'm Ryan Gorman, and we have some important conversations
lined up for you. In just a bit, we'll run through the history behind the upcoming June teenth Holiday with a special guest from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. But right now, to get things started, I'm joined by US Marine Corps veteran and executive director of Mission roll Call, Cole Lyle. You can find out more about this organization at Mission Rollcall
dot org. Cole really appreciate taking a few minutes to come on the show as this month, June is PTSD Awareness Month and a lot to talk about on this topic. But let me start if you don't mind, with your personal story of dealing with PTSD. Yeah, Ryan, Well, thank you for having me on first and foremost. When I got to the Marine Corps in twenty fourteen, I had already been experiencing issues with post traumatic stress when
I got back from Afghanistan. They make people take what's called a post deployment Health assessment, which ranges from trying to identify physical injuries or issues to mental health issues like postraumatic stress. It was indicated that I needed to see treatment, so I started doing that and I used traditional kind of evidence based therapies that the VA provides and went to some counseling at what is called a BET
center. I was prescribed sleep aids and antidepressants for my symptoms of postraumatic stress because there's actually no medication that's ada proof for postraumatic stress. All of that didn't really work that well for me. Ultimately, I went through a pretty rough period and one night in twenty fourteen almost became a veteran suicide physic. I kind of crawled out of that hole with help from other Marines and peers
of mine mentors, ended up getting a service. ARBIT worked tremendous well for me, and that's kind of how I got into betteran advocacy because I wanted to help others get through the same things that I went through. And this
is an issue that is not uncommon among veterans. Correct, Yeah, I mean it's it's hard to say exactly how common it is because there are statistics that suggest like from the VA, for example, that less than thirty percent of veterans with some symptoms of postraumatic stress on a regular basis, and obviously from service eras it can differ widely, viet non veterans tend to have a
higher rate of postraumatic stress symptoms than global warm terior veterans. But there's some non VA studies, like when the Warrior Project came out with a study last year a pole of veterans that they did it was nationwide that said that I'm going to get the statistic wrong, but it was some overwhelming number of veterans like seventy five at eighty percent to deal with symptoms of post traumatic stress.
So it's hard to know exactly how common it is, but certainly if you talk to veterans in the community, either they or somebody they know has dealt with this at some point. Let's get to the issue of veteran suicide now, because the number of veterans who take their own lives on a daily basis is just astonishing. The figure said it most frequently is about twenty two per
day. But even if it's a little lower, which I've heard, or a little higher, which I've also heard we're still talking about a tragic situation in this country. Yeah, so the twenty two number was an official statistic from VA. That number, according to BA, has now decreased to a little less than seventeen a day. There are a couple of different reasons for
this, because year over years the VA's numbers. They get their data from the CDC, who in turn gets it from individual states, and unfortunately, all states are not equal when it comes to counting suicides or verifying a veteran's
status as a veteran. There's no uniform tool to do that, so the data is frankly pretty sketchy, and there are outside studies groups like America's Warrior Partnerships did Operation Deep Dive, and the Inner Runs study that is being done by Duke University in conjunction with several states, including Florida, suggests that the actual suicide rate is when you account for accidental overdose with opioids and things that
aren't as obvious as gunshot wounds, that the actual numbers is closer to probably about forty four a day. So we don't know exactly because the data is so bad, and that's why groups like America's Warrior Partnership are doing operations deep dive to try to get an accurate assessment of the problem, because until we do that we have an idea of scope and scale, we're kind of just, you know, throwing spaghetti at a refrigerator, trying to figure out what
works and what doesn't. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by s Marine Corps veteran and Executive director of Mission Role call coal Lyle the issue of mental health within the veteran community. Are we talking about a growing issue or is it more that veterans are more comfortable now coming forward and seeking out that mental health treatment. Yeah, you know, I don't know that I would say that it
is becoming a growing concern overall. I think that we are becoming it probably is a combination of Yes, it may be getting a little worse, but I think it also has to do with the fact that we're getting a lot more comfortable talking about it at this point. So it may just seem like it's getting worse because people that we're dealing with it before in silence are now openly talking about it, which is a good thing. They should be able
to talk about it and work through these issues. Would I would also note though that you know, suicide is not all is necessarily a mental health problem. Certainly a mental health issue can exacerbate those symptoms. But you know, when somebody commits suicide, it could be a conglomeration and usually is a conglomeration of things like financial stress, acute financial stress, relationship problems, divorces or breakups, things like that, you know, and and also mental health issues.
But we too often, and especially at BEA, they look at suicide prevention through the lens of mental health, and I think that structurally is not a good way to look at it because first of all, the BEA only actually touches less than fifty percent of veterans in the United States, you know, so they're not reaching the entire population. And number two, the success rates of therapy and medication cover at around fifty three perspectively, so their own
data suggests that it only works half the time. We need a different approach and their organizations out there in the local communities that Mission Roll Call went and visited last year that are doing the Lord's work on the ground and will continue to advocate for those community organizations. Can you tell us about some of the different strategies that are being used to help deal with this. Yeah, so again, when you look at this, it could be an issue of a
veteran kind of losing purpose. You know, their identity was wrapped up in the military service. They were fighting for a cause greater than themselves. They had a very tight knit community, a chain of command that they could take their their issues too and hopefully, you know, solve whatever personal problems they were having, you know, outside of military service, things like that.
So a lot of the organizations that are seeing success are organizations like Boldercrest Foundation has two locations in northern Virginia and then out in Arizona that bring veterans in for what is called a Warrior Path program that brings veterans into a group together and kind of reprograms them, so to speak. We do a really good job of programming civilians to become service members, but then we're not doing a
great job of teaching them how to reintegrate when their services done. So bouldercrests other organizations, they bring them together and they kind of help them reprogram their sense of purpose and their identity dealing with specific issues. But it's not always trauma based, right, it's not always post traumatic stress symptoms. Sometimes it's
it really is just conditions of the human condition that they're struggling with. So that's why Congress actually recognize June thirteenth as Post Traumatic Growth Day, because, yes, traumas can affect the way you live your life and how you respond to things, but it can also make you stronger in the long run if you actively learn how to mitigate it and help other people go through them.
So you mentioned vetter in service dogs and how that helped you. Is that becoming a more popular approach to dealing with mental health issues including PTSD and tell us more about how that worked for you. Certainly it's becoming more prevalent. I think, as I mentioned, the VA's approach is very evident spased talk, therapy, and medication, and they've been reticent historically to embrace more holistic
approaches to mental health. You know, they say they have the veteran Whole Health Initiative, but you know, when you look at the funding that they give to certain programs versus traditional it's clear where the priorities are. But yes, service dogs are becoming more prevalent. HI work tremendously well for me. She was trying to wake me up from nightmares and stop anxiety attacks. And but more than that, she gave me a sense of purpose that pills just
wouldn't ever. Do you know, a dog needs to be walked, needs to be taken care of. Um, So it gave me a kind of a partner on kind of my path in recovery. And I trusted that you would be there. So it was tremendously helpful, which is why you know, I ultimately lobbied for the Pause Act, which was passed in twenty twenty
one, expanding service dog access to veterans with postraatic stress. And I think other than service dogs, veterans are just screaming for different approaches to try to mitigate not only symptoms of mental health issues, but kind of, like I said, the loss of identity, which is why you're seeing organizations that are
less you know, traditional better in service organizations. We visited in Montana, great example last year a nonprofit called Heroes and Horses that is effectively a dude ranch that brings veterans out for forty one days and teaches them how to be a cowboy if they if they want to start a new life and a new identity. Veterans are screaming for these options. So I think, along with service dogs, other approaches to this are just going to continue to grow and
expand. And finally, for those who want to support the work that you're doing at Mission Role Call, what are the different ways they can help? Yeah, I think first and foremost, if you go to Mission roll Calls dot org, you can sign up for texting email polls. You don't have to be a veteran, but you know we can pull veterans and veteran supporters
about issues that Congress is considering that would affect the veteran community. We're actually testifying for the House that are Fair Subcommittee on Help next week about community care. Sign up for those text and email polls. But also, you know, donate um if you can an recurring donor. But I would say just we put out newsletters. Just keep yourself in the note and do your best
to help veterans in your local community. US Marine Corps veteran and executive director of Mission Role Call Cole Lyle. Again, you can learn more about the work this great organization does at Mission Rollcall dot org. Cole want to thank you so much, obviously, for your service to this country and for taking a few minutes to come on the show. We appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely, thank you. Right, all right, I'm Ryan Gorman here on
iHeartRadio Communities. A new Gallup poll found about six and ten Americans say they know a lot or some about Juneteenth. That means many of us are still learning about the history and importance of Juneteenth. And to offer a comprehensive overview of the holiday, I'm joined now by Kelly Navies, Museum Specialist of Oral History at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Kelly,
thanks so much for coming on the show. Now, before we get to the events of June nineteenth that led to this holiday, can you set the stage for us and run through some of what happened leading up to that date. So you're talking about the end of the Civil War. The Civil War
had officially ended it April of eighteen sixty five. The Amancipation Proclamation was signed in the middle of the Civil War, and it was really a wartime strategy, and that was in January first, eighteen sixty three, and that only had an impact on states in the Confederacy, so did not impacts you. If you were in a state such as Texas that had very little Union presence, your life did not change if you were an enslaved individual. And so
you're talking about the aftermath of the Civil War. The country and somewhat still in the state of disarray. The Confederacy has not fully accepted the authority of the United States of America. So the Union troops are needed to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. And that is exactly the setting for G ANDT. You know, it can be kind of hard to comprehend what it must have been like to live in that time period. So connected these days we get so much
information in an instant but back then, obviously that wasn't the case. How was worth spreading about what was happening across the country. Well, yeah, so people think that they didn't know about it at all, and that's not exactly true. There were networks amongst the enslaved. When some people were some of the enslaved had jobs, for example, that took them on the road, and whenever they did that, they would pass messages. So it isn't
that they didn't necessarily know. And as well as the slave owners, of course, you had horses and trains and such carrying information. Of course, we didn't have the Internet, but they were aware of what had happened with the Emancipation Proclamation. It was just that they had no intention of enforcing it. And those African Americans who were still there and under those conditions, there was something that they could do because their lives would be threatened if they attempted
to assert their freedom. There were many who ran away, of course, but those were African Americans that were closer to Union line and this specific day tunes. How did this become the date that now we celebrate as federal holiday.
So on June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five, General Gordon Granger arrives in Galveston, Texas, was about two thousand Union troops and some of those troops towards United States Colored troops, and the troops were necessary to enforce the order Orders number three, which basically confirmed the Emancipation Proclamation and let them know that they were no longer legally enslaved. And this he was enforced again by the presence of these troops. Without the presence of these troops, it would be
meaningless of General Gordon Granger had shown up by himself. They would have said get out of here with that news, right, Bud. He had the troops. And this actually went on in different cities throughout Texas as well. The African Americans who were freed as a result of that announcement and the enforcement of the Union in truth, they began to celebrate juenteenth the following year in Houston in eighteen sixty six, and it's spread from there, and it's been
celebrated in Texas non stop since that day. Senna State Holiday in Texas since nineteen seventy nine, and some other places as well, and with the Great Migration, it started to spread. I grew up in California. We were celebrating it there. The city of Berkeley has been celebrating June tenth since thineteen
eighty six. So things were building to the point where now, of course, we have this federal holiday and people around the entire country are finally getting to know what June tenth is and what it's about and why it's important to celebrate. You kind of alluded to this earlier, but I want to follow up on this point in particular, and again I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Kelly Navies. Museum specialist of Oral History at the Smithsonian National Museum of African
American History and Culture. So Juneteenth is directly linked to Texas, and I want to go back to that time period because there was so much happening following the conclusion of the Civil War in so many different parts of the country. Can you dive a little bit deeper into why Texas is the focal point?
Yeah, Well, Texas was the furthest west slaveholting state, and throughout the Civil War had very little Union presence, and so in fact, slave owners from other states such as Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia actually moved to Texas, some slave owners so that they continued to hold their enslaved people. It was like a renegade state in some ways it still is, right, So you really required the presence of these Union truths to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. Now,
let's remind people that's the Emancipation Proclamation. Still wasn't the final document that the end of slavery. That was the Thirteenth Amendment that was ratified later that year December eighteen sixty five. Taking a look at that year, follow the wing the arrival of General Granger and his troops to Texas to announce that they
were going to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. From that period of time to the first anniversary of Juneteenth, the first commemoration of that day tell us about some of the events that transpired in Texas and across the country. Well, of course, they were supposed to the clause in the states that they have to maintain our relationship as employer and higher labor with their former slave owners. That was an interesting clause. So they had to either stay in the area and
become officially employed or try to leave the area. This is what we're talking This is an air of reconstruction. It is a very very chaotic period in American history. And of course there were troops throughout the state, but Texas being a very large state, it was still quite dangerous if you were trying to leave. And a lot of African Americans to day title leanings in that period because many of them have been sold away as a domestic slave trade.
In the previous years leading up to the Civil War, there was a huge domestic slave trade that continued in Over a million African Americans were displaced from places like Maryland and sent for deeper South so people wanted to return to their families. They wanted to bring their families together. So many people tried to leave, a lot of people stayed. That those that stayed banded together in communities
and raised money to buy land. And Houston, Reverend Jackie led his community and they raised money and they bought property in Houston and started a part Emancipation Parts available to African Americans in Houston, and a similar developments throughout the nation where people formed bought land. African Americans bought land and formed Emancipation Park so
that they could have spaces to sell. Great Team. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Kelly Navy's Museum Specialist of Oral History at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. You can find out more about all of their work on Juneteenth at NMAAHC dot SI dot edu. That's NMAAHC dot SI dot
edu. So, as we get further and further removed from the original commemoration of June Team, what were some of the other events that have taken place some of the notable moments that led up to more recently June Team eventually becoming a federally recognized holiday. That's a complicated question, but I can list some
of the milestones. I mean, a lot of things have happened. For example, just with the celebration itself evolved the first Juneteenth, you had actual people still living who would prove recalled slavery, and those people would share and give testimony to their experience. They sang spirituals. Then the Black National Anthem, which is now a feature of all Gantee, that wasn't written until nineteen hundred, right, so it wasn't until after nineteen hundreds that becomes a part
of the holiday. And what you see is as a culture evolved, as African American culture evolved, the celebration of Gantee's changes, and then of course their different developments taking place to World War two, the Great Migration, when the African Americans have left the South thousands by the thousands and took their celebrations with them, not just any teams, but other aspects of the culture as well. But Gerantins was one of the things that traveled. Particularly you see
a lot of Texans moving out west to California. Of course it's celebrated in Oklahoma as well. Then the celebration kind of wanes a little bit and becomes up again during the Civil Rights movement in the nineteen sixty eight you have the Poor People's Campaign where you have acted. This is all races coming to Washington,
DC to advocate for the rights of the poor. This is a campaign started by doctor Martin US King in the SCLC, but it involved many different activists wore around the country and at the end of that campaign they had a Solidarity Day and it was on June nineteenth, nineteen sixty eight, June tenth. So many of these activists learned about gun tines for the first time. And this is around the time, for example, that my father learned this
holiday and we started celebrating it in our family. They took it back to their towns where they lived throughout the country and you see it research until Genny tents at that time, and then it settled down and again it was mainly celebrated in Texas, around Oklahoma, parts of California where those people moved in.
There were pockets, but it wasn't until the last few years when there were many, many, many incidents that occurred that kind of made people realize we need to look at our history, like why are we having these problems. George Floyd, what's going on with that? Uh? People started to learn about the Tulsa massacre. Um, why why why are we having these
problems with race in this country? What brought us to this moment? So people are looking back to Guneteenth and the history of slavery because clearly we haven't resolved a lot of the issues of that time period. Issues of citizenship and democracy, for example, UM that people were fighting for in reconstruction are still big issues today. So Guneteenth places um a light on those issues and gives us an opportunity to meditate on how far we've come, What does freedom mean,
what does it mean to be an American? How do we all and utilize the citizenship that we have as Americans? So this is a time that of Guneteenth gives us a space and a place to reflect on those things and to celebrate how far we've actually come. And I think adisinally Americans are looking for a way to come together like this. This holiday started by African Americans. But it's American history, right. The Civil War is American history.
The Amanciation proclamations the American history. General Gordon Granger was a white man Union troops were both races, were all races were all Americans are different races, right, So this is something that reflects all of our history and the continuing struggle for freedom and the demand for citizenship. As new people move into our country, they can look back to jun teenth as a way to to see
where this journey began in the United States of America. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Kelly Navies, Museum Specialist of Oral History at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. We're talking about the history of Juneteenth within
African American communities across the country. How much has the importance of this Juneteenth date, what took place so many years ago on June nineteenth, How much has that grown, especially as June team has become the focal point of this push to make it a federally recognize holiday. Well, it's grown tremendously, not just for African Americans, but for all Americans in the past few years.
I mean that's someone who has been celebrating it in my family. Each year, new people come, so we saw it grow with each year. Each year we would invite any and everybody around and people would show up and whenever they would come to our gent teems. They would always come to next
year. They would like, this is fantastic. They loved the presentation, the cultural presentation with children would perform, and the poetry and the music, and of course the delicious foods, and people would say, I love this. I mean, this is like such a good mix of the generations and learning about history and celebrating our elders but also looking towards the future and nurturing
the children. And it would just grow with each year. But now, of course, as it became a federal holiday, one of the best pieces of news that we've had in it a difficult last two to three years, more and more people are learning about it, and I believe that it will continue to grow. You mentioned a couple of things that many in this country are still learning more and more about, Juneteenth being one of them. Also,
the Tulsa Race massacre was something you mentioned. Was there anything else looking back at that time period from the end of the Civil War Juneteenth, that June nineteenth date through you the next couple of decades that really stands out to you that you think is notable and is worth discussing further. Like we have begun to do with Juneteenth, the end of slavery, with things like the Tulsa Race massacre. Well, it was reconstruction is a rich, rich,
rich period. I mean, this is when you see through the roots of
public education in the United States of America. People don't understand it. There's a newly freed to African Americans or some of the first to push for the education for public education because of course that was one of the on the top things in their list, and they had been unable to go to school while they were enslaved, and one of the first things that they were able to do is to get out and learn how to read and write and to have
their children have access to in education. So that's a huge issue and we see that right now. Education is still a huge issue, the state of public education and what is taught right in the schools. Voting rights, that was another big issue. Black men earned the right to vote with the fourteenth Amendment and the fifteenth Amendment rather than those thirteen fourteen to fifteen Amendment. For
those reconstruction amendments. Women of course did not have the vote as any race at that time, but black men started to exercise the right to vote. But even as they were exercising the right to vote, they did that there's
a set of violence. Many were killed trying to exercise the right to vote then, and of course linconstruction, there was a back class to Reconstruction, starting in eighteen seventy seven when the Union troops were removed from the South and continuing up to the passes of Plusy versus Ferguson in eighteen ninety six for Separate but Equal Law, and then you see voting rights almost completely taken away from African Americans throughout the South until what we know of as a modern civil rights
list right sixty years later. So all of this is going on in the Reconstruction era. Education, the early business, voting rights, even the beginnings of women's rights movements of course white women, but Black women as well were starting the beginnings become of their own conventions and struggle for civil rights as well. You see the roots of that during the era of Reconstruction. So it's a it's a very rich period and it wasn't a spirity period as well,
I mean violent. You know, people African Americans who were once chattel right, they had values. At the end of the Civil war, they no longer had value, so their lives weren't worth much, and many of them were kill trying to assertas their rights and two basic things like own property, learn how to reason right. Kelly Navies Museum Specialist of Oral History at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. You can learn more at
NMAAHC dot SI dot edu. Kelly, we really appreciate the time. Thank you so much for coming on and talking to us about the history of this juneteent holiday. Oh it's been my pleasure and I'm actually just getting started, but thank you, all right, and that's going to do it for this edition of Ihear Radio Communities. I'm your host, Ryan Gorman. We'll talk to you again real soon.