[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 109 (Wednesday, June 23, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E684-E685]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                JUNETEENTH NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE DAY ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 16, 2021

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, as a senior member of the House 
Judiciary Committee, the Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, 
and Homeland Security, and the principal sponsor in the House of the 
Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, I rise in strong and 
enthusiastic support of S. 475, the Senate companion to the Juneteenth 
National Independence Day Act for my bill H.R. 1320 introduced on 
February 25, 2021, which establishes June 19 as a federal holiday.
  Research by the Library of Congress looking back to the beginning of 
the Congress's existence as a legislative body could find no bill that 
sought to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, prior to the bill I 
introduced on June 18, 2020.
  I have introduced the Juneteenth resolution annually since 2013.
  In 2020, the resolution received 214 sponsors in the House of 
Representatives.
  This surge in support let me know that the nation was ready for a new 
holiday and therefore I introduced H.R. 7232, the Juneteenth National 
Independence Day Act which received 158 sponsors in the 116th Congress.
  Senator Doug Jones and Senator Edward Markey contacted my office 
seeking to introduce a Senate companion.
  Later Ed Markey's staff reached out to collaborate on a Senate 
version of my Juneteenth Holiday bill and ultimately introduced the 
Senate version of the bill, which followed the text of H.R. 1320.
  I applaud the U.S. Senate for passing S. 475/1320, Juneteenth 
National Independence Day Act, companion legislation to H.R. 1320, 
which I introduced to make Juneteenth a federal holiday to commemorate 
the end of chattel slavery, America's Original Sin, and to celebrate 
the perseverance that has been the hallmark of the African American 
struggle for equality.
  I thank Senator Markey of Massachusetts for contacting my office with 
his request to introduce the Senate companion to H.R. 1320 for this 
Congress, and to my senior senator, Senator John Cornyn of Texas for 
his steadfast support of the Juneteenth holiday over the years, and 
others who spearheaded this effort in the Senate, and Senate Majority 
Leader Schumer for his support and for using his legislative skills to 
ensure the bill was voted on and passed.
  Madam Speaker, the process that has brought us to this day has been 
bipartisan, bicameral, cooperative, and constructive beginning with my 
collaboration in the 116th Congress with former Senator Doug Jones of 
Alabama and Senator Cornyn of Texas to coordinate the introduction and 
cultivate the necessary support for the Juneteenth National 
Independence Day Act.
  That partnership has continued through the 117th Congress with the 
addition of Senator Markey of Massachusetts as the lead Democratic 
sponsor in the Senate.
  The bipartisan H.R. 1320, the House version of S. 475/H.R. 1320, is 
sponsored by 166 Members from all regions of the country, including two 
of my Republican colleagues from Texas, Congressman Van Taylor and 
Congressman Randy Weber.
  Madam Speaker, now it is time for the House of Representatives to act 
swiftly and bring to the floor, vote on, pass the Juneteenth National 
Independence Day Act, and send it to the desk of President Biden for 
signature.
  With the President's signature, the federal government will join 47 
states in recognizing as a holiday Juneteenth, the day that has been 
celebrated by African Americans for 156 years and has been called 
rightly as `America's second Independence Day.'
  Let me extend on behalf of all of us who have labored to pass this 
important legislation our deep appreciation to the House leadership, 
particularly Majority Leader Hoyer, for their support which paved the 
way for the House last year to pass by unanimous consent H. Res. 1001, 
the resolution I introduced recognizing Juneteenth Independence Day.
  As I have said many times, Juneteenth is as significant to African 
Americans as July 4 is to all Americans because on that day, June 19, 
155 years ago, General Gordon Granger, the Commanding Officer of the 
District of Texas, rode into Galveston, Texas and announced the freedom 
of the last American slaves; belatedly freeing 250,000 slaves in Texas 
nearly two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln signed the 
Emancipation Proclamation.
  When General Granger read these words of General Order No. 3 set off 
joyous celebrations of the freedmen and women of 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, and 
     the connection therefore existing between them becomes that 
     between employer and hired laborer.''

  Juneteenth thus made real to the last persons living under the system 
of chattel slavery, of human bondage, the prophetic words of President 
Abraham Lincoln delivered November 19, 1863, at Gettysburg `that this 
nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that 
government of the people,

[[Page E685]]

by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.'
  Juneteenth was first celebrated in the Texas state capital in 1867 
under the direction of the Freedmen's Bureau and remains the oldest 
known celebration of slavery's demise, commemorating freedom while 
acknowledging the sacrifices and contributions made by courageous 
African Americans towards making our great nation the more conscious 
and accepting country that it has become.
  As the nation prepares to celebrate July 4th, our Nation's 
independence day, it is a time to reflect on the accomplishments of our 
nation and its people.
  The celebration of Juneteenth followed the most devastating conflict 
in our country's history, in the aftermath of a civil war that pitted 
brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor and threatened to 
tear the fabric of our union apart forever that America truly became 
the land of the free and the home of the brave.
  Juneteenth honors the end of the 400 years of suffering African 
Americans endured under slavery and celebrates the perseverance that 
has been the hallmark of the African American experience in the 
struggle for equality.
  But as the poet Langston Hughes reminds us in his famous poem, 
`Mother to Son,'' life in America for African Americans ``ain't been no 
crystal stair.'
  The post-bellum period in America was marked by violence and 
terrorism against African Americans as they sought to make real the 
promises of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
  General Granger's reading of General Order No. 3 ended the remaining 
vestiges of the system of chattel slavery, a form of perpetual human 
bondage that held generations of Africans in captivity in the United 
States for two-hundred and forty-eight years and opened a new chapter 
in American history.
  Recognizing the importance of this date, former slaves coined the 
word ``Juneteenth'' to celebrate the occasion, the first of which 
occurred in the Texas state capital in 1867 under the direction of the 
Freedmen's Bureau.
  Juneteenth was and is a living symbol of freedom for people who did 
not have it.
  Juneteenth remains the oldest known celebration of America's freedom 
from slavery.
  I commemorates freedom while acknowledging the sacrifices and 
contributions made by courageous African Americans in the quest to make 
our more perfect.
  The celebration of Juneteenth followed the most devastating conflict 
in our country's history, in the aftermath of a civil war that pitted 
brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor and threatened to 
tear the fabric of our union apart forever that America truly became 
the land of the free and the home of the brave.
  The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, ``Freedom is never 
free,'' and African American labor leader A. Phillip Randolph often 
said ``Freedom is never given. It is won.''
  Truer words were never spoken.
  We should all recognize the power and the ironic truth of those 
statements, and we should pause to remember the enormous price paid by 
all Americans in our country's quest to realize its promise.
  In recent years, a number of National Juneteenth Organizations have 
arisen to take their place alongside older organizations--all with the 
mission to promote and cultivate knowledge and appreciation of African 
American history and culture.
  I am reminded that the first legislation introduced in Congress 
recognizing Juneteenth occurred a quarter century ago, in 1996, when 
H.J. Res. 195 was introduced by Congresswoman Barbara Rose Collins of 
Michigan and I have introduced similar legislation annually since the 
109th Congress.
  So it has been a long road we have travelled to get to this day, even 
longer that the 15-year journey taken to pass the bill making the 
Birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a national holiday.
  Juneteenth celebrates African American freedom, and in so doing 
celebrates America's history and promise, while encouraging 
selfdevelopment and respect for all cultures.
  But it must always remain a reminder to us all that liberty and 
freedom are precious birthrights of all Americans, which must be 
jealously guarded and preserved for future generations.
  In conclusion, I wish to take a moment to salute two of the unsung 
heroes who helped bring us to this day: the late Texas State 
Representative Al Edwards and nonagenarian Opal Lee, known 
affectionately as the ``Grandmother of Juneteenth.''
  In 1852, Frederick Douglass famously asked: ``What to the slave is 
the 4th of July?''
  In 2021, we can reply that it is the beginning of the American 
Promise that would be fulfilled and made real for all Americans, 
including the descendants of slaves, on June 19, 1865, `Juneteenth 
Day.'
  That is why we celebrate Juneteenth and that is why I urge all 
Members to join me in voting to pass H.R 1320/S. 475, the ``Juneteenth 
National Independence Day Act.''

                          ____________________