[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 94 (Tuesday, June 22, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1164-E1165]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     RECOGNIZING THE 145TH ANNIVERSARY OF JUNETEENTH AND THE 17TH 
 CELEBRATION OF THE JUNETEENTH FREEDOM & HERITAGE FESTIVAL IN MEMPHIS, 
                               TENNESSEE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 22, 2010

  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize June 19, 2010 as 
the 145th anniversary of the observance of Juneteenth in the United 
States and the 17th celebration in Memphis, Tennessee. While the 
Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 
September 1862, it was not until June 19, 1865 that Union Soldiers led 
by Major General Gordon Granger proclaimed freedom to the last slaves 
in the far corners of the South in Galveston, Texas. To commemorate 
this day in our history and the political contributions of many 
African-Americans to our nation, the Memphis Juneteenth Freedom and 
Heritage Festival has chosen the theme, ``A Tribute to African-
Americans in Politics from Reconstruction to Present.''
  Hiram R. Revels of Mississippi, the first African-American to serve 
by appointment in the U.S. Senate in 1870 and Joseph Hayne Rainey of 
South Carolina, the first African-American elected to the U.S. House of 
Representatives in 1871, made tremendous political strides by paving 
the way for other African-Americans. Jefferson Long, although the 
shortest serving African-American in the U.S. House of Representatives, 
was the first to speak on the floor in 1870. Blanche Bruce of 
Mississippi was the first African American and only former slave to 
preside over the U.S. Senate in 1979 and William Dawson of Illinois was 
the first to chair a standing Congressional committee in 1949. Shirley 
Chisholm of New York was the first African-American woman elected to 
Congress in 1968. From my home of Memphis, Harold Ford, Sr. was the 
first African-American from Tennessee to be elected to the U.S. House 
of Representatives. His son, Harold Ford, Jr., was the first African-
American Member to succeed his father. Today, we all have our first 
African-American President, Barack Obama.
  From Reconstruction to the Sanitation Workers Union Strike in 1968, 
Memphis has been

[[Page E1165]]

at the center of the movement for racial equality. Memphis is home to 
many prominent political figures including Robert R. Church, Jr., a 
political leader and founder of the first Tennessee chapter of the 
NAACP in 1917, and in 1964, A. W. Willis became the first African-
American elected to the Tennessee General Assembly after 
Reconstruction.
  Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks, former Executive Director/CEO of the NAACP and 
Dr. Vasco Smith, the first African-American elected to the Shelby 
County Commission and influential in the founding of The MED, both 
resided in Memphis until their recent deaths. Former Tennessee State 
Senator and civil rights judge Russell Sugarmon currently resides in 
Memphis and is still politically active. I am privileged to have worked 
alongside these men and to call them friends.
  Since 1865, communities have gathered to celebrate Juneteenth through 
readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, singing of spirituals, and 
large gatherings of family and friends. For the past 17 years in 
Memphis, Juneteenth has been held in the historic Douglass Community, 
named after Frederick Douglass. The land on which the community sits 
was once owned by Reverend William Rush-Plummer, the son of a slave 
from Africa and a slave owner.
  Madam Speaker, it is in the spirit of these great men and women and 
countless others that I ask my colleagues to join me in observing our 
nation's 145th anniversary of Juneteenth and the celebrations in 
Memphis. This is a time to reflect upon the end of slavery in America 
and to recognize the many contributions from African-Americans. As Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, the Emancipation Proclamation ``came as a 
joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.''

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