[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9580-9582]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      JUNETEENTH INDEPENDENCE DAY

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 175, which was submitted 
earlier today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 175) observing Juneteenth 
     Independence Day, June 19, 1865, the day on which slavery 
     finally came to an end in the United States.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, this week, specifically June 19, people all 
across the Nation are engaging in the oldest known observance of the 
ending of slavery, Juneteenth Independence Day.
  It was on June 19, 1865, when African Americans in the Southwest 
received the news from Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon 
Granger, that the enslaved were free. This was 2\1/2\ years after 
President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which was 
issued on January 1, 1863, and months after the conclusion of the Civil 
War.
  For more than 145 years, descendants of slaves have observed this 
anniversary of emancipation as a remembrance of one of the most tragic 
periods of our Nation's history. The suffering, degradation and 
brutality of slavery cannot be repaired, but the memory can serve to 
ensure that no such inhumanity is ever perpetrated again on American 
soil.
  Today, 42 States, the District of Columbia, and several other 
countries, including Goree Island, Senegal, a former slave port, 
recognize Juneteenth Independence Day with special activities in 
commemoration of the emancipation of all slaves in the United States.
  We also celebrate Juneteenth across the country in large measure 
because of the efforts of Lula Briggs Galloway, of Saginaw, MI, whose 
efforts to promote recognition of Juneteenth played a major role in the 
passage of the first resolution on Juneteenth Independence Day by the 
U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in 1997.
  Already, Congress has observed an important moment today in honoring 
the history of the fight for justice and equality. The unveiling of a 
statue depicting Frederick Douglass in Emancipation Hall, on this day, 
June 19, 2013, means visitors to the Capitol from now forward will be 
reminded of this man's immense contributions to the moral and 
intellectual foundations of our Nation's drive for justice. Douglass 
escaped from slavery and became a leading writer, orator, publisher and 
one of the most influential advocates for abolitionism, and equality of 
all people.
  Today, I am very pleased that the Senate will unanimously adopt a 
resolution, S. Res. 175, recognizing the historical significance of 
Juneteenth Independence Day, which I jointly sponsored with Senator 
Cornyn, and is cosponsored by Senators Landrieu, Cowan, Harkin, 
Gillibrand, Cardin, Mark Udall, Leahy, Brown, Stabenow, Durbin, 
Schumer, Hagan, Murray, Pryor, Cochran, Sessions, Coons, Whitehouse, 
Shaheen, Kaine, Warner, Boxer, Cruz, Rubio, Risch, Mikulski, Wicker, 
Baldwin, Casey, Begich, Nelson, Tom Udall and Warren.
  The resolution expresses support for the observance of Juneteenth 
Independence Day, and recognizes the faith and strength of character 
demonstrated by former slaves, that remains an example for all people 
of the United States, regardless of background or race.
  All across America we also celebrate the many important achievements 
of former slaves and their descendants. We do so because in 1926, Dr. 
Carter G. Woodson, son of former slaves, proposed such a recognition as 
a way of preserving the history of African Americans and recognizing 
the enormous contributions of a people of great strength, dignity, 
faith, and conviction--a people who rendered their achievements for the 
betterment and advancement of a nation once lacking in humanity towards 
them. Every February, nationwide, we celebrate African American History 
Month. And, every year on June 19 we celebrate ``Juneteenth 
Independence Day.''
  Lerone Bennett, Jr., writer, scholar, lecturer, and acclaimed 
Executive Editor for several decades at Ebony Magazine, has reflected 
on the life and times of Dr. Woodson. Bennett tells us that one of the 
most inspiring and instructive stories in African American history is 
the story of Woodson's struggle and rise from the coal mines of West 
Virginia to the summit of academic achievement:

       At 17, the young man who was called by history to reveal 
     Black history was an untutored coal miner. At 19, after 
     teaching himself the fundamentals of English and arithmetic, 
     he entered high school and mastered the four-year curriculum 
     in less than two years. At 22, after two-thirds of a year at 
     Berea College [in Kentucky], he returned to the coal mines 
     and studied Latin and Greek between trips to the mine shafts. 
     He then went on to the University of Chicago, where he 
     received his bachelor's and master's degrees, and Harvard 
     University, where he became the second Black to receive a 
     doctorate in history. The rest is history--Black history.

  In keeping with the spirit and the vision of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, I 
would like to pay tribute to two courageous women, claimed by my home 
State of Michigan, who played significant roles in addressing American 
injustice and inequality. These are two women of different times who 
would change the course of history.
  The contributions of Sojourner Truth, who helped lead our country out 
of the dark days of slavery, and Rosa Parks, whose dignified leadership 
sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the start of the civil rights 
movement, are indelibly etched in the chronicle of the history of this 
nation. Moreover, they are viewed with distinction and admiration 
throughout the world.
  Sojourner Truth, though unable to read or write, was considered one 
of the most eloquent and noted spokespersons of her day on the 
inhumanity and immorality of slavery. She was a leader in the 
abolitionist movement, and a groundbreaking speaker on behalf of 
equality for women. Michigan has honored her with the dedication of the 
Sojourner Truth Memorial Monument, which was unveiled in Battle Creek, 
MI, on September 25, 1999. In April 2009, Sojourner Truth became the 
first African American woman to be memorialized with a bust in the U.S. 
Capitol. The ceremony to unveil Truth's likeness was appropriately held 
in Emancipation Hall at the Capitol Visitor's Center. I was pleased to 
cosponsor the legislation to make this fitting tribute possible. 
Sojourner Truth lived in Washington, DC for several years, helping 
slaves who had fled from the South and appearing at women's suffrage 
gatherings. She returned to Battle Creek in 1875, and remained there 
until her death in 1883. Sojourner Truth spoke from her heart about the 
most troubling issues of her time. A testament to Truth's convictions 
is that her words continue to speak to us today.
  On May 4, 1999, legislation was enacted which authorized the 
President of the United States to award the Congressional Gold Medal to 
Rosa Parks. I was pleased to coauthor this tribute to Rosa Parks--the 
gentle warrior who decided that she would no longer tolerate the 
humiliation and demoralization of racial segregation on a bus. I was 
also pleased to be a part of the effort to direct the Architect of the 
Capitol to commission a statue of Rosa Parks, which was recently placed 
in the United States Capitol, making her

[[Page 9581]]

the second African American woman to receive such an honor.
  Her personal bravery and self-sacrifice are remembered with reverence 
and respect by us all. Over 55 years ago, in Montgomery, AL, the modern 
civil rights movement began when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat 
and move to the back of the bus. The strength and spirit of this 
courageous woman captured the consciousness of not only the American 
people, but the entire world. The boycott which Rosa Parks began was 
the start of an American revolution that elevated the status of African 
Americans nationwide and introduced to the world a young leader who 
would one day have a national holiday declared in his honor, the 
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. In addition, the overwhelming majority 
of my colleagues in the Senate joined me in sponsoring legislation 
authorizing the Congressional Gold Medal to be presented to Dr. King, 
posthumously, and Coretta Scott King in recognition of their 
contributions to the Nation. Companion legislation was led in the House 
by Representative John Lewis.
  We have come a long way toward achieving justice and equality for 
all. We still, however, have work to do. In the names of Rosa Parks, 
Sojourner Truth, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 
and many others, let us rededicate ourselves to continuing the struggle 
of civil rights and human rights.
  In closing, I would like to pay tribute to the Juneteenth directors 
and event coordinators throughout my State of Michigan. They have 
worked tirelessly in the planning of intergenerational activities in 
observance of Juneteenth, heading up a wide range of activities over 
several days in Detroit, Flint, Holland, Lansing, Saginaw, and other 
areas around the State.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, 148 years ago today Union troops arrived 
in Galveston, TX, to take possession of the State and enforce the 
promise of the Emancipation Proclamation.
  It had been 2 months since General Lee's surrender at Appomattox 
Courthouse and more than 2 years since President Lincoln had issued the 
Emancipation Proclamation, but word of the proclamation's promise was 
only now reaching those held in bondage in Texas.
  With the reading of General Order No. 3 to the people of Galveston, 
the last remaining slaves in the United States were officially free.
  The date, June 19, 1865, has gone down in history as ``Juneteenth.'' 
It is a day to celebrate the end of legalized slavery in America and to 
rededicate ourselves to continuing the struggle for true equality.
  I can not think of a better day to welcome to the United States 
Capitol--at long last--a statue of Frederick Douglass.
  The statue of the great abolitionist leader was welcomed in a 
dedication ceremony earlier today. The statue now stands, 
appropriately, in Emancipation Hall, the great hall of the Capitol 
Visitors Center.
  The Frederick Douglass statue is only the fourth carved likeness of 
an African American to be displayed in the United States Capitol. It 
joins busts of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Douglass' 
fellow abolitionist leader, Sojourner Truth, and a statue of Rosa 
Parks, which was dedicated 2 months ago.
  Importantly, the Douglass statue is the first statue accepted by 
Congress from residents of the District of Columbia for display in the 
United States Capitol.
  A Federal law gives each State the right to display in the Capitol 
two statues of its distinguished residents. Although District of 
Columbia residents pay Federal income taxes and serve in our Armed 
Forces, they have no voting member in Congress and they had no statue 
in the Capitol, not one, until today.
  By accepting the Frederick Douglass statue, Congress honors a great 
man and, I hope, moves closer to recognizing the rights of Washington, 
DC to be represented fairly in Congress.
  Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is Washington, DC's only elected 
representative in either House of Congress and is a distinguished 
champion of freedom and equality in her own right.
  She has been fighting for a dozen years for Washington, DC's right to 
display two statues in the Capitol, the same as every State.
  I was proud to include language in the fiscal 2013 Financial Services 
and General Government appropriations bill allowing the District to 
display the Douglass statue in the Capitol. I hope that America's 
capital city will have a second statue in the Capitol soon.
  I cannot think of a better or more distinguished choice for the 
District's first statue than Frederick Douglass.
  He was called ``the Lion of Anacostia,'' after the section of 
Washington where he lived for the last 23 years of his life.
  He was a social reformer, a brilliant orator and writer, a statesman 
and a leader in the movement to abolish slavery in America.
  Frederick Douglass knew that evil institution well. He was born into 
slavery as Frederick Bailey in Talbot County, MD, in 1818. Like many 
enslaved children at that time, he met his mother only a few times in 
his life. His father was likely his mother's white owner.
  When Frederick Douglass was 8 years old, he was sent to live with his 
owner's relative in Baltimore. She taught him the first letters of the 
alphabet but quit when she learned that it was illegal to teach a slave 
to read.
  When he was 15, he was returned to his owner's farm, where he risked 
his life to educate other slaves.
  At the age of 20, Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery. Disguising 
himself as a sailor, he boarded a train from Baltimore to New York 
City.
  It was in New York that he changed his name to Douglass, to avoid 
being captured.
  In the north, Douglass began speaking publicly about the horrors of 
slavery. He carried his message throughout the country and to other 
nations.
  He published a book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 
describing his life as a slave and his efforts to gain his freedom. The 
book helped transform the debate over slavery--but it also forced 
Douglass to flee to Europe to avoid being recaptured under the Fugitive 
Slave Act.
  He continued to speak about equal rights for all people in England, 
Scotland and Ireland. Supporters in Great Britain were so deeply moved 
that they purchased Douglass' freedom, allowing him to return to the 
U.S. after more than 2 years abroad.
  Upon returning, he settled in Rochester, NY, and began publishing The 
North Star, an uncompromising and highly regarded abolitionist 
newspaper.
  When the Civil War broke out, Douglass recruited African American 
soldiers to fight for the Union Army.
  His passionate writing and speeches are widely credited with 
influencing President Lincoln's evolving aims for the war--from simply 
preserving the Union to ending slavery in America for all time.
  After the war, Frederick Douglass moved to Washington, DC. He was 
appointed by Presidents to posts as U.S. Marshal for the District of 
Columbia, Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, U.S. Minister 
to Haiti and Charge d'Affaires to the Dominican Republic.
  Frederick Douglass was a firm believer in the equality of all people, 
regardless of race or gender, whether Native American or immigrant.
  He famously said: ``I would unite with anybody to do right and with 
nobody to do wrong.'' He also fought for voting rights and home rule 
for residents of the District of Columbia.
  I hope that the new statue will encourage Members of Congress to 
finish Frederick Douglass' fight for District residents to have self-
government and Congressional representation.
  I will end with a story of the last time Frederick Douglass and 
Abraham Lincoln saw each other.
  It was Inauguration Day 1865. After hearing President Lincoln deliver 
his Second Inaugural Address at the Capitol, Frederick Douglass went to 
the White House for a reception in the President's honor.
  Police officers refused him entry at first. But President Lincoln got 
word

[[Page 9582]]

that Douglass was at the door and instructed that he should be welcomed 
in.
  When President Lincoln saw Frederick Douglass, his face lit up and he 
said in a booming voice for all to hear: ``Here comes my friend 
Douglass.''
  As we welcome the statue of this revered American to the United 
States Capitol, we say: ``Here comes our friend Douglass.'' We are very 
glad you are finally here.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I rise today as an original co-sponsor of 
Senator Levin's resolution celebrating the 148th anniversary of 
Juneteenth, the oldest commemoration of the end of slavery in the 
United States. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, 
TX, to inform the slaves that they were free. Although the Emancipation 
Proclamation had taken effect on January 1, 1863, nearly 2\1/2\ years 
passed before the message reached slaves in Texas and the Union troops 
enforced the President's order. Nearly 90 years after America's 
Independence Day, Africans in America finally obtained their 
independence from slavery. Juneteenth is a day when all Americans can 
celebrate Black Americans' freedom and heritage.
  The House of Representatives and Senate passed resolutions by voice 
vote in 2008 and 2009, respectively, apologizing for the injustice, 
cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow laws. The 
resolutions acknowledged that African-Americans continue to suffer from 
the complex interplay between slavery and Jim Crow long after both 
systems were formally abolished. This suffering is both tangible and 
intangible, including the loss of human dignity, the frustration of 
careers and professional lives, and the long-term loss of income and 
opportunity.
  On this day, it is fitting to remember our Nation's painful history. 
Millions of Africans were torn from their homeland and brought to the 
Americas as chattel. While it is unknown how many died during the 
Middle Passage, it is estimated that 645,000 arrived in the United 
States. My own State of Maryland had slaves. In 1790, more than 100,000 
slaves, which would have been about one-third of the State's total 
population, lived in Maryland. Seventy years later, the 1860 Census 
indicated that there were more than 4 million slaves nationwide.
  Despite Maryland's history of slavery, many Marylanders led the fight 
for abolition. The Underground Railroad was a secret network that 
helped enslaved men, women, and children escape to freedom. Its route 
through Maryland took passengers by boat up the Chesapeake Bay. Ships 
departed from the many towns located directly on the Bay and from 
cities on rivers that flowed into the bay, including Baltimore. Many 
ships' pilots risked their own lives and livelihoods by hiding 
passengers' and helped them on their way.
  Another route led slaves by land up along the Eastern Shore of 
Maryland and into Delaware, where they could cross into Pennsylvania 
and go north to freedom in Massachusetts, New York, and Canada. This 
was the route used by Harriet Ross Tubman, a native of Dorchester 
County, MD. Tubman not only guided herself and her family to freedom 
through the Underground Railroad, she also made more than 19 trips to 
the South to lead more than 300 slaves to freedom. She never lost a 
``passenger'' along the route.
  Harriet Tubman's legacy lives on. She and the other brave men and 
women who manned the Underground Railroad are remembered as enduring 
symbols of America's commitment to equality, justice, and freedom. They 
fought for the ideals that this country was founded upon despite the 
fact that their conditions were far from ideal. I have introduced the 
S. 247, the Harriet Tubman National Historical Parks Act, to create a 
national park in Maryland that would extend north to New York, along 
the path Tubman traveled to freedom. This legislation, when enacted, 
will stand as a monument to all that Harriet Tubman risked her life 
for. The tenacity with which she fought not only for her freedom but 
for the freedom of her brothers and sisters is certainly something we 
should remember and commemorate.
  Juneteenth marked both the end of slavery in the United States and 
the beginning of a long and arduous civil rights movement. In the years 
since the first Juneteenth, our Nation has no doubt made considerable 
progress, but many challenges remain. Discrimination, disparities, and 
racially motivated hate persist. We must confront these issues. We 
cannot ignore the disparities in health care that result in higher 
premature birth rates and reduced life expectancy for minority 
populations. We cannot ignore discriminatory sentencing in our courts 
or discriminatory lending practices by financial institutions. Racially 
motivated police brutality and hate crimes cannot stand. We must 
continue to pursue justice in each of these areas, and for all 
Americans.
  We owe it to the legacy of our predecessors in the battle for racial 
equality to keep fighting injustice until the declaration that ``all 
men are created equal'' rings true. We cannot be complacent. As Martin 
Luther King, Jr. said, ``Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice 
everywhere.'' We must continue to strive toward elimination of 
inequality so we can truly honor the spirit of Juneteenth.
  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. President, on June 19, 1865--2 years after 
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation Union 
soldiers arrived in Galveston, TX, with news that the Civil War had 
finally ended and the African Americans were free from slavery. This 
day marked the first time news of the emancipation had reached the 
southern-most tip of the old confederacy.
  One hundred and forty-eight years later, in Colorado and across the 
country, we remember the importance of providing liberty and justice 
for all and how embracing tolerance has helped our country to move away 
from the terrible legacy of slavery.
  The impact of Juneteenth in 1865 has certainly reached beyond 
Galveston, TX. Across Colorado and the Nation, communities celebrate 
Juneteenth by recognizing the important progress our country has made 
towards equality and acknowledging how far we still have to go. We do 
this by remembering the heritage and struggles of African Americans and 
commemorating their many achievements and contributions to our country. 
In my home State of Colorado, for example, Pueblo celebrates its 33rd 
annual Juneteenth celebration by honoring active servicemembers and 
military veterans, and Denver hosts the Juneteenth Music Festival one 
of the largest celebrations of Juneteenth in the country.
  Celebrating this holiday is an important reminder of how our 
differences make us stronger. Juneteenth brings people together to 
reflect on our past and look forward to our future where we will all 
finally achieve the dream Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., laid out almost 
50 years ago--of being judged not by the color of our skin, but by the 
content of our character.
  Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the 
preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the 
table, with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 175) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  (The resolution, with its preamble, is printed in today's Record 
under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')

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