[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 103 (Friday, June 20, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1301-E1302]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                RECOGNIZING JUNETEENTH INDEPENDENCE DAY

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                               speech of

                          HON. JOHN B. LARSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 17, 2008

  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition 
of the Juneteenth holiday which was on June 19th. Yesterday, the House 
of Representatives

[[Page E1302]]

passed H. Res. 1237, recognizing the historical significance of 
Juneteenth Independence Day. I voted in favor of this resolution and I 
commend my colleague, Representative Danny Davis of Illinois for 
introducing this legislation. Juneteenth marks the anniversary of June 
19, 1865, the day Union General Gordon Granger and 2,000 Federal troops 
arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take control of the State and formally 
free the slaves.
  News of the end of slavery did not reach frontier areas of the United 
States, for more than 2 years after President Lincoln's Emancipation 
Proclamation, and months after the conclusion of the Civil War. When 
word finally reached the enslaved populations in these areas, African 
Americans celebrated their liberation in towns across Texas and the 
southwest. These celebrations became a tradition for African Americans 
in Texas and have since spread across the United States.
  Juneteenth is not only a time to commemorate the historical 
significance of the emancipation of slaves, but also time to recognize 
and celebrate the vast achievements and progress of African Americans 
across the Nation. In my home State of Connecticut, Juneteenth is an 
officially recognized holiday. We make note of fearless Connecticut 
abolitionists James Mars and J.W.C. Pennington who fought tirelessly to 
end slavery and petitioned Connecticut's Legislature regarding voting 
and social rights for African Americans in the 1840s and 50s. We also 
recognize the significant milestone of the United States Supreme Court 
decision restoring freedom to the survivors of the Amistad Slave Ship, 
then living in Connecticut. Through museums and sites such as the Old 
State House, the Mark Twain House, the Harriet Beecher Stowe House, the 
Connecticut freedom trails, and the Amistad Center for Arts and Culture 
at the Old State House, we pay homage to the African American 
experience throughout the State.
  And so Madam Speaker, I rise to commemorate a day that represents not 
only an end to centuries of a great injustice, but the beginning of a 
new journey for all of Americans.

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