Political Quotes

“Mr. President, earlier this week, we commemorated the 158th Juneteenth, which celebrates the liberation of the last remaining enslaved Black Americans at the end of the Civil War. On this date in 1865, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in a Confederate outpost in Galveston, TX, where he delivered the news to 250,000 still- enslaved Texans that all slaves were free. Though President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the final emancipation of African-American slaves was not reached until 2 years later, with the end of the Civil War and then ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. African-American communities have celebrated Juneteenth as Emancipation Day as far back as 1886 in Texas, but it was not until June 2021 that Congress voted to make Juneteenth a Federal holiday, which President Biden signed into law. Maryland has had its own complicated history when it comes to the abolition of slavery. Indeed, President Lincoln limited the application of the Emancipation Proclamation only to States that had seceded from the Union during the Civil War. Maryland itself was divided on the issue of slavery in the Civil War. According to the 1860 census numbers taken before the Civil War, Maryland's population contained almost an equal number of free and enslaved African Americans. Slavery had deep roots in Southern Maryland and Eastern Shore.…”