[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 87 (Thursday, June 16, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3885-S3886]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
JUNETEENTH 2011
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I rise today in celebration of the 146th
anniversary of Juneteenth, the oldest continually celebrated
commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. This
significant historical event is appropriately observed as an important
part of American history. Though the Emancipation Proclamation
officially took effect on January 1, 1863, many slaves did not find
freedom until Union troops were able to reach the Southern States to
enforce the order. Lincoln's order initially directed the Confederate
States to end slavery, but allowed the States that remained in the
Union during the Civil War to maintain the peculiar institution of
slavery. It wasn't until December of 1865 that the 13th amendment
marked the complete abolition of slavery in this country. Juneteenth
was an important first step toward inclusion in the greater American
dream.
It is a time of reflection, healing and an opportunity for our
country to have meaningful discussions about our legacy of slavery and
inequality and our ambitions for a more perfect Union.
With the breadth of technology we have today, it is difficult for
many to conceive of a time where news traveled over days, months and
even years depending on where the communication began and ended. The
real-time dissemination of information via mobile phones, BlackBerries
and Skype video chat makes it easy to forget a time when things moved
at a much slower pace. In the 1860s horses were widely used for
carrying mail, although parts of the country were building out
railroads--with locomotives powered by steam traveling approximately 15
miles per hour.
On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, TX, to deliver
freedom to slaves still held in bondage. Because of the amorphous
period between the Emancipation Proclamation and the official
implementation of freedom for America's slaves, Juneteenth is
celebrated not only on June 19, but the entire month of June, to
represent the slow spread of freedom during the war. The culminating
reading of General Order No. 3 on June 19 sparked spontaneous and
jubilant celebration, and the spirit of that celebration has thrived in
every African-American community from that day forward.
[[Page S3886]]
While Juneteenth represents an import phase in our history, it does
not represent the end of discrimination and prejudice. African
Americans would continue to struggle to establish equality as citizens,
in education, professional careers and socioeconomic status because of
Jim Crow laws and other forms of insidious discrimination.
In marking this occasion, it is appropriate to reflect on what was
responsible for its creation. Millions of Africans, kidnapped by
traders or sold into bondage by warring African kings, were ripped from
their ancestral homes and carried across the Atlantic Ocean under
hellish conditions known as the Middle Passage. While estimates vary,
it is likely that as many as 2.5 million Africans died before ever
reaching the shores of the ``New World.''
No comfort found them upon their arrival, as they were treated as
chattel and sold to merchants and farmers. Their daily lives included
intense, back-breaking physical labor for long hours in poor
conditions, with no hope of attaining freedom or economic advancement.
Maryland was complicit in this bondage, and at one point in the late
16th century, slaves made up approximately a third of the State's
population.
Maryland, however, helped to lead the abolitionist movement as well.
The underground railroad, vital to the freedom of many slaves, ran
through Maryland's Eastern Shore and Chesapeake Bay. Its operation
relied on the kindness and secrecy of a vast network of often anonymous
citizens, many who lived in Maryland, all equally dedicated to ferrying
fleeing slaves to freedom in New York, Massachusetts, and Canada.
Indeed, determined slaves from Maryland would leave an indelible mark
on our national landscape. Harriet Tubman, a slave from Dorchester
County, MD, went on to guide her family as well as 300 other slaves
over 19 trips into the South out of slavery and into the North. During
her clandestine daring, she never lost a single ``passenger.''
Frederick Douglass, born in Talbot County, escaped northwards at age
20 and began a long life of fiercely advocating for racial equality not
only in the United States but abroad as well. He established the
hallmark arguments that abolitionists would echo for years to come,
until Emancipation was finally proclaimed.
Emancipation was not the end of the struggle. Explicit laws and
implicit associations would continue to create and sustain dire
inequalities in the African-American community. Maryland passed 15 Jim
Crow laws between 1870 and 1957, laws that would meaningfully segregate
almost every area of public life, and would contribute to the man who
would later argue the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case,
Thurgood Marshall, being denied admission to the University of Maryland
Law School. Marshall would go on to become the first Black Supreme
Court Justice, and would help to safeguard the rights and freedoms of
all Americans, regardless of race.
This Juneteenth, we must recommit ourselves to fighting racial
disparity and prejudice. As we look back at the legacy of Juneteenth,
and how the slow spread of the news of freedom brought forward a new
era in our country's history, we must recommit ourselves to the hard
work of ensuring that equal representation, equal opportunity, and
equal justice are spread everywhere as well. Though the progress and
spread may be slow, it will reach every American if we continue to
vigilantly demand equality to access to health care, equal treatment by
financial institutions, equal educational opportunities, and adherence
to the words of our forefathers that ``all men are created equal.''
We must continue to eliminate inequality so we can truly honor the
spirit of Juneteenth.
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