Freedom is an ongoing struggle that, when achieved for some, must be protected and extended to all oppressed. Juneteenth recalls our nation’s embrace and expansion of chattel slavery of Africans, the centuries-long struggles for the abolition of slavery, and the pernicious grasp that racism and oppression continue to have on our country, as demonstrated by the years it took for all enslaved black people to be granted the status of freedom. Juneteenth is thus a commemoration and a commitment to the ongoing freedom struggle.
The Rev. Cecil Charles Prescod is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and a brother in the Order of Corpus Christi, an evangelical catholic religious order. Cecil serves as Minister of Faith Formation at Ainsworth United Church of Christ in Portland, OR.
He holds a B.A in Philosophy from Haverford College (PA), and a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.
Cecil has been active in social justice issues since his youth. Among the organizations that he has worked with are Ministers for Racial Social and Economic Justice (MRSJ) and United Black Christians in the United Church of Christ, Mackenzie River Gathering Foundation, the Urban League of Portland, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Love Makes A Family, Inc, Brother to Brother, the American Friends Service Committee, KBOO Radio, and PFLAG-Portland Black Chapter.
- In 2002 Cecil received the Russell Peyton Human Rights Award from the Metropolitan Human Rights Center.
- In 2012 Cecil was recognized as one of the Queer Heroes NW by the Q Center and the Gay & Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest (GLAPN).
- In 2022 Multnomah County of Commissioners awarded Prescod the Gladys McCoy Lifetime Achievement Award for his “outstanding volunteer service, dedicated to improving the community.”
