[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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