Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts Ed Markey
Washington (June 16, 2023) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), author of the Juneteenth Independence Day Act, released the following statement today in anticipation of Juneteenth, and in celebration of the second anniversary of Juneteenth’s commemoration as a federal holiday:
“This weekend families, friends, neighbors, and communities will come together to celebrate Juneteenth, a hallowed day in our nation’s history—a day of celebration, a day of remembrance, but most importantly, a day of action. Together as a nation, this year we celebrate the second anniversary of Juneteenth National Independence Day, which marks the formal end of slavery in the United States. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed into law on January 1, 1865, but for two years, freedom and justice for enslaved Americans in Texas was delayed and denied. Even today, for so many Black Americans, the reality of justice delayed and denied persists. We will never fulfill our potential and our promise as a nation if we continue to ignore the legacy of slavery, the toll of racism, and the injustice of inequity that defined the founding of the great American experiment and that continue to plague us to this day.
“In partnership with my colleagues in Congress and the unrelenting advocacy of the inimitable Ms. Opal Lee, I introduced the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act in 2020 to make Juneteenth a federal holiday—not as a day of rest, but as a day of recognition. On this day, we recognize and recommit to the work that lies ahead. We recommit to dismantling the profound injustices, rooted in racism and white supremacy, that continue to oppress Black Americans.
“On Juneteenth, I am calling on my colleagues in Congress not only to honor this holiday, but also to do the work to rectify our legacy of injustice by passing legislation that ends police violence, ensures equal voting rights and equal pay, guarantees health care to all, protects Black parents and babies from rising maternal mortality, defends Black communities from environmental injustice, pursues economic justice through reparations, and dismantles inequity in all of its forms.”