Mitch Landrieu: “I rise today on the 138th anniversary of the day that Major General Gordon Granger and his Union soldiers arrived in…”

“I rise today on the 138th anniversary of the day that Major General Gordon Granger and his Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, TX. They brought the news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Since its origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as African American Emancipation Day, or Juneteenth, is the oldest known celebration of the ending of slavery. It took two and a half years after the effective date of the Emancipation Proclamation set forth by President Lincoln for the news of freedom to arrive in Texas. Of course, this kind of delay in finding out about new national policy, especially a bold new initiative set forth by Executive Order, would be absurd in our present society. We are now part of the information age and access to the most up-to-date news is commonplace. Unfortunately, African Americans who attempt to trace their genealogy face undue delay in obtaining the necessary documents to try and piece together their unique heritage. For this reason, I am proposing the Servitude and Emancipation Archival Research Clearinghouse, SEARCH, Act of 2003.”