Dear Colleague on Juneteenth

Statement

Dear Democratic Colleague,

Today is a national holiday observing Juneteenth! Let us rejoice and be glad!!

Let us be sure the American people, especially our children, are aware of the importance of this holiday. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas and gave word to enslaved African Americans that they were free -- more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

On this day, 157 years ago, General Gordon Granger stood on Texas soil and read General Orders No. 3: "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free." It is interesting to note that the Emancipation Proclamation was carried out by executive order -- the most consequential in American history.

By the time the important news reached Galveston, President Lincoln had already been assassinated. But the words from his first Inaugural Address rang just as true on that day in Texas, as they still do today: "The mystic chords of memory ... will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

Let us enjoy the day, appreciate the history and make progress for the future as we move our nation ever closer to a more perfect union.

Thank you for your leadership For The People.

NANCY

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