Happy Juneteenth!
Help Democrats Take Back The House!
Dear Friends,
On Juneteenth, we commemorate June 19th, 1865 — the day that Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, TX, and Major General George Granger declared over 250,000 enslaved Black Americans in Texas free — delivering news of liberation nearly two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and two months after the Civil War ended.
Juneteenth is a solemn, beautiful celebration of freedom for African Americans — a testament to faith, resilience and strength. For 160 years, it’s been a day to reflect on how far we’ve come AND the remaining work to be done in service of equality, freedom and justice for all. This Administration’s outright racism, dismantling of DEI and recent assaults on voting rights by state governments across the South, brought on by the Supreme Court’s disastrous Callais decision, remind us that our fight continues.
After years of grassroots advocacy and support from the Congressional Black Caucus, I was proud to join my colleagues as Congress passed legislation written by our beloved colleague, the late Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston, to declare Juneteenth a national holiday in 2021 — ensuring that one of the most momentous events in our history became enshrined as a day of national cultural remembrance.
How fitting and beautiful that we welcomed the Obama Presidential Center this week in Chicago — a reminder of his audacity to hope for the entire country and a beacon for our future leaders. To be associated with what the President and First Lady Michelle Obama have memorialized is pretty humbling. We accomplished so much together — the Affordable Care Act, the Repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Equal Pay for Equal Work — all of it rooted in community, integrity and making change.
As our dear late Congressman John Lewis, the Conscience of the Congress, reminds us: “Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes and each one of us in every generation must do our part.” This has been true across generations and is also true in this moment. And just like those who fought against and resisted slavery and Jim Crow, it is now our turn to come together and build the future we deserve.
We know that our diversity is our strength and our unity is our power. Let us be inspired by the example of Opal Lee — the Grandmother of Juneteenth, whose outside mobilization created the drumbeat to make Juneteenth a national holiday — to continue striving to build a brighter, more just future that we ALL deserve, especially the Children.
Thank you for your help in building a Beloved Community. May God bless you and your loved ones and may God bless America.
Happy Juneteenth!
NANCY
