News From Nancy 6/20/2025
Help Democrats Take Back The House!
Dear Friends,
This week, we celebrate Juneteenth – a commemoration of June 19th, 1865 – the day Union soldiers entered Galveston, TX, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation and Major General George Granger then declared the over 250,000 enslaved Black Americans in Texas free. General Granger delivered this news of liberation nearly two and a half years after President Lincoln’s proclamation and two months after the official end of the Civil War. It was an honor to be in community on a national call with Black leaders and Volunteers in Politics yesterday, mindful that each and every one of us are among today’s new messengers of hope and champions of freedom and justice for all.
Juneteenth stands as a beautiful celebration of freedom for African Americans – a testament to the values of faith, resilience, strength. Over the last 160 years, it has been a day for reflection on how far we’ve come on our path to equality, freedom and justice for all. We remember the generations of heroic civil rights leaders in every state, city and town who have advanced the ongoing struggle to realize America’s highest ideals of justice, equality and opportunity for all.
As Speaker, I ordered the removal of portraits of Confederate leaders from the U.S. Capitol and called for the removal of statues of Confederate soldiers and officials on display across our country. After years of grassroots advocacy and support from the Congressional Black Caucus, I was proud to join my colleagues as the 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 in our history and took its rightful place of honor as a national cultural remembrance.
We know that the fight against racism and toward equality for all has a long way to go, but it is a fight that continues with a renewed sense of purpose and necessity. Sadly, this Juneteenth comes during a season of attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion and our freedoms by an Administration more enamored of their own fascist dreams than the dreams of the American people. In this moment, we must recommit ourselves to demanding freedom and justice for all – built upon equality, shared understanding and mutual thriving.
As Martin Luther King once said, “The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” We are the ones who create pressure and momentum to bend that moral arc. It doesn’t just happen – we have to make it happen. Each and every one of us can follow the example of Opal Lee, the Grandmother of Juneteenth, whose outside mobilization created the drumbeat to make Juneteenth a national holiday. It was my distinct honor to be with Opal Lee as we received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for our service to our country from President Joe Biden last year.
Last weekend, millions of Americans from sea to shining sea marched for Democracy, our communities, our rights and our freedoms. We hold the freedom to peacefully assemble as sacred in our country, and we rejoice at the tremendous show of unity and community in support of democracy and against the authoritarian wishes of Trump and MAGA Republicans.
As we celebrate Juneteenth, let us renew our pledge to continue our tireless march toward a more perfect union and live up to our nation’s founding promise of full equality for all. In the words of Congressman John Lewis, the Conscience of the Congress for decades: “Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.”
Today, and every day, let us continue striving to build a brighter, more just future For The Children and for one another. May God bless you and your loved ones and may God bless America.
NANCY
