[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 105 (Thursday, June 15, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H2947-H2948]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CELEBRATING JUNETEENTH
(Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I wish my colleagues a happy
Juneteenth. I hope they will celebrate Juneteenth as we leave for this
Juneteenth commemoration.
H. Res. 1001, my resolution to recognize Juneteenth, June 19, was
introduced on June 15, 2020. The resolution garnered 214 of my
colleagues as cosponsors, and it led to the introduction of the first
Juneteenth National Independence Act, my bill, H.R. 7232, on June 18,
2020.
In the 117th Congress, we introduced again the Federal holiday on
February 25, 2021. I was asked by Senator Markey to introduce the
Senate companion to my bill in the United States Senate.
Mr. Speaker, that year was the golden year. That led to both Houses
supporting the legislation and being signed by the President of the
United States.
How significant this was that General Granger made a visit to
Galveston 2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation to indicate to
those slaves--still slaves--you are free.
This is a day of jubilation. This is a day of freedom. It is a
holiday for all Americans. The 12th holiday here in the United States;
38 years after the last holiday. I encourage the Nation to celebrate
it.
I thank Reginald Adams for a wonderful mural. I thank Representative
Edwards for putting that forward in the State of Texas.
Happy Juneteenth. Celebrate it.
Mr. 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 Federal Holiday.
I stood in strong and enthusiastic support of S. 475, the Senate
companion to the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act I 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.
I applauded the U.S. Senate for passing S. 475, Juneteenth National
Independence Day Act in the 117th Congress, which was a companion bill
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.
Mr. 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, is sponsored
by 166 Members from all regions of the country, including
[[Page H2948]]
two of my Republican colleagues from Texas, Congressman Van Taylor and
Congressman Randy Weber.
Mr. 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, 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.
It 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 than 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 self-
development 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
zealously 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 the nation joins in this
celebration this weekend.
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