Political Quotes

“I rise today to acknowledge June 19 as Juneteenth. On June 19, this Nation will recognize Juneteenth with a Federal holiday. We will gather in the spirit of remembrance, resilience, and recommitment to celebrate a day of delayed liberation, but not undeniable triumph. On June 19, 1865, more than 2 years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, with the news that the last enslaved Black Americans were finally free. Freedom did not come easily. It came slowly, unevenly, and at a painful cost, but it came. Along with it, generations of Black Americans began the long, unfinished journey toward full equality through Reconstruction, through Jim Crow, through the civil rights movement, and through the voting rights movement even now in our time. Juneteenth is not just about history. It is about truth telling. It is a reminder that freedom delayed is freedom fought for and that liberation means more than just the breaking of physical chains. It demands justice in our laws, equity in our institutions, dignity in our labor, and respect in our schools, in our neighborhoods, and in our Nation.”