[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 80 (Thursday, June 16, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H4651]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            IN HONOR OF THE 140TH ANNIVERSARY OF JUNETEENTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Conaway). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of the 140th anniversary 
of Juneteenth. This is the oldest known African American celebration 
commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. This holiday 
actually started because of an event in Texas history.
  Back on June 19, 1856, Major General Gordon Granger led Northern 
soldiers into Galveston, Texas, to announce the ending of the War 
Between the States and to order the release of the last remaining 
slaves. While President Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation 
Proclamation occurred over 2 years earlier, on January 1, 1863, in the 
midst of the War Between the States, the peculiar institution of 
slavery, as Southerners referred to it, continued until this historic 
day. No one in Texas had ever heard that the slaves had been freed 
until June 19, 1865.
  Before Texas was a State, it was a free republic, independent Nation, 
for 9 years. The Constitution of the Republic of Texas of 1836 
expressly forbid the importation of slaves from Africa, but slaves 
continued to come to Texas from the United States. As a result, slavery 
spread.
  Texas was admitted to the Union in 1845, by just one vote. I might 
add that some say they wish the vote had gone the other way. 
Nonetheless, the Lone Star State had some 30,000 slaves. In the census 
of 1850, 27 percent of the Texas population was slaves. In 1860, right 
before the war started, it was almost 30 percent.
  So on that day in 1865, June 19, thus the phrase, ``Juneteenth,'' 
Major General Granger dramatically declared when he landed in 
Galveston, Texas: ``The people of Texas are informed that in accordance 
with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves 
are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of 
property between former masters and slaves.''
  It is interesting to note, Mr. Speaker, that Lincoln's Emancipation 
Proclamation only applied to the Southern States. It took the 13th 
Amendment to free the slaves in the border States and the rest of the 
United States.
  Now Juneteenth has become not just a Texas holiday but a national 
event. This Sunday, as thousands of Americans across the Nation 
celebrate Juneteenth through cultural displays and various educational 
activities, let us reflect back on this milestone in this ongoing 
struggle for equality and freedom. Let us remember the committed, 
courageous and critical men and women who made tremendous sacrifices to 
secure the end of slavery.
  Our Nation's history is littered with struggles for freedom starting 
with our revolution for independence from the British empire. World 
history, too, is filled with great labors for liberty, based on gender, 
race, religion and ethnicity. Just this January, I traveled to Iraq to 
observe its historic election, in which young and old, men and women, 
achieved the opportunity to make a free choice.
  So amidst intimidation, threats and actual violence, the people of 
Iraq spoke out against the past oppression and broke off the chains of 
slavery from Saddam Hussein. There is something down in the soul of 
each of us that we have the yearning and the God-given desire to be 
free.
  African American freedom fighters throughout countless generations 
paid a precious price to deliver equality and freedom for their 
brothers and sisters and their posterity. Overcoming many dangers, 
toils, and snares, civil rights activists like Texan Barbara Jordan, 
the first black woman to serve in the United States Congress from the 
South and Craig Washington, a masterful criminal defense attorney and 
the first black State senator in the State of Texas. He was an attorney 
and former Member of the United States House of Representatives. James 
Farmer, another Texas and principal organizer of the ``Freedom Rides.'' 
Dred Scott, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks and Dr. 
Martin Luther King and some colleagues in this House, as well as many 
more, helped in the fight for equality in America.
  Although we have made significant strides in ensuring that this 
country fulfills the words of our national anthem, ``land of the free 
and home of the brave,'' we must always remain ever vigilant and also 
make the Declaration of Independence a true reality for all peoples.
  As that Declaration of Independence says, ``We hold these truths to 
be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed 
by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are 
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.''

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