[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16222]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               JUNETEENTH

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, today is June 19. June 19 is an important day 
in history. To African Americans, and to all Americans it should be, 
but to African Americans in particular, it is known as Juneteenth.
  Juneteenth is the first day I got involved in politics and learned 
about it. I didn't know much about it. I thought, why is Juneteenth a 
holiday to African Americans, and I learned. It's a holiday because 
that's the day in 1865 that the slaves in east Texas learned that they 
were free.
  The news of the Emancipation Proclamation did not get to Texas for 2 
years, and that was the day that all slaves in America were free. The 
idea of our country having slavery as an institution was wrong. It was 
a crime against humanity.
  There is nothing more valuable to any of us than freedom, the 
opportunity to go where we want, to do what we want, and to associate 
with whom we want. That's what makes America great. Unfortunately, we 
had that institution, and later we had Jim Crow for 100 years.
  That's why I have introduced H. Res. 194 to apologize for slavery and 
Jim Crow, a crime against humanity that this government and this House 
permitted and allowed to occur. We must apologize for our errors.

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