[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 104 (Wednesday, June 14, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2094-S2095]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               JUNETEENTH

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this coming Monday is Juneteenth, our 
newest national holiday, a day set aside to celebrate the triumph of 
freedom over slavery in America.

[[Page S2095]]

  The name ``Juneteenth'' is a combination of two words, ``June 
nineteenth.'' That was the day, in 1865, that the U.S. Army's ``General 
Order No. 3'' was issued, finally informing the people of Texas of the 
Emancipation Proclamation--and that all of the remaining enslaved 
people in that State were free.
  Sadly, on this Juneteenth--even as our Nation celebrates--we are 
witnessing the most concerted effort in decades to erase from our 
history America's long and still unfinished struggle to fully end 
racism, the odious lie on which slavery was built. Last year, according 
to the American Library Association, there were 1,269 demands to ban 
books in school libraries in various States. That is more than double 
the number of book bans sought in 2021. And it is the greatest number 
of book bans demanded in the 20 years that PEN America, an organization 
dedicated to the freedom of expression, has kept records on this 
troubling trend.
  What is the most frequent target of these new bans? Books involving, 
or even just mentioning, issues of race. And what are the books that 
these censors are demanding be pulled from the shelves of school 
libraries?
  Here are some examples: ``To Kill a Mockingbird'' is one. Another is 
a biography of Jesse Owens, the great American runner who won four gold 
medals at the Olympic Games in Munich in 1936, shattering the Nazi myth 
of racial supremacy. In Florida, the book banners demanded that school 
textbooks containing the story of Rosa Parks remove race and racism as 
reasons she refused to move to the back of the bus. Such efforts to 
erase history are an attack on the freedom to read and learn.
  This week, my State of Illinois became the first State in the Nation 
to ban this form of censorship by public libraries. I hope more States 
will stand up for history--and that on the eve of this Juneteenth, 
Americans will commit ourselves firmly to truth.

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