No Dem Left Behind Honors Juneteenth

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

June 18, 2021

WASHINGTON, DC — Tomorrow is Juneteenth, a day honoring the final freeing of Black people in Texas still enslaved more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863.

To some, the holiday means more than just commemorating the freeing of enslaved people. Juneteenth also acts as a celebration of the resilience of the Black community — but the reality is that Black people shouldn’t need to be so resilient. We all need to do our part to achieve freedom for the Black community, and the work is far from over.

We often say, “Justice delayed is justice denied.” The same can be said of Freedom. Freedom was denied for those two years until Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, TX to announce that slavery had been abolished. But it’s still denied today. Black people still aren’t free to walk, jog, drive, shop, sleep, celebrate, or simply live their lives without the threat of harm or death. Freedom is still delayed; it is still denied.

Recognizing Juneteenth as a national holiday is a step in the right direction, but as a country we need to further dedicate ourselves to these civil rights causes if we are going to see true equality and justice in the United States. There is so much work to be done to advance civil rights. The Black community is not free from police brutality, not free from voter suppression, not free from housing discrimination, not free from discrimination in the work place and the list goes on.

It is time for us to learn the real history of our nation and teach it in our schools. Doing better begins with knowing better. We need to start knowing better. Ignorance is no excuse. It’s time to dispense with the whitewashed version of American history and teach truth, to understand how white supremacy is woven into every aspect of our society. It’s time to be better.

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ABOUT NO DEM LEFT BEHIND

No Dem Left Behind is a one-of-a-kind grassroots movement dedicated to electing democrats in rural communities to Congress. NDLB is organizing and elevating rural Democrats, expanding the Democratic base in rural America, and sending more Democrats to Congress. For more information about No Dem Left Behind, visit www.nodemleftbehind.com.