Juneteenth commemorates ongoing struggle for freedom

(NewsNation) — This week’s June holiday commemorates the end of slavery in the United States in 1865, but this Wednesday also marks 60 years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed by the U.S. Senate. The occasion serves as a reminder that many of the rights granted to black Americans were not realized when the last slaves were freed and that the fight for total freedom for all citizens continues.

“Yes, we achieved freedom for enslaved people”, US Representative Steven HorsfordD-Nev., the chairman of Congressional Black Caucus, he told NewsNation. “But there is still the freedom of opportunity, the freedom (for everyone) to prosper economically, the freedom for people to love who they love, and the freedom for women to make their own decisions about health care.”

He added: “This is the whole underlying question of liberty and the freedom of people to go about their lives unobstructed.”

What is eleventh?

June tenth It has been recognized as a federal holiday since 2021, when President Joe Biden officially added the first national holiday since Martin Luther King. Jr. Day became a national holiday in 1983.

Biden signed the measure into law after the US Senate unanimously approved the bill; it had already been approved in the US House of Representatives by 415 votes to 14.

Also known as “Freedom Day” or “Emancipation Day,” the eleventh month commemorates the day that Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, a U.S. Army officer and Union general during the Civil War, formally announced the end of slavery in Texas on June 19, 1865.

“This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and property rights between former masters and slaves, and the connection hitherto existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor,” Granger said that day.

The order was announced in Galveston, Texas, the last of the US states to receive news that all slaves had been freed, which occurred more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

Granger’s proclamation came more than two months after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia, ending the major conflicts of the Civil War.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

Originally conceived by President John F. Kennedy, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law on July 2, 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson. The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin.

With 67 votes remaining to be approved, the measure went through several versions with opposition coming not from Republicans, but from conservative Democrats. Debate over the bill continued for months as Democratic leader Mike Mansfield faced divisions within his own party. After back and forth, the proposed bill came to a head on June 10, 1964. With Democrats facing a looming deadline, Republican Senator Robert C. Byrd took the floor on the evening of June 9 and spent the 2 p.m. and the next 13 minutes dissecting the bill, according to the Senate record.

Finally, shortly after 10 a.m. on June 10, Byrd finished his long presentation, which led to a vote. The approval ended a period of 60 working days that included seven Saturdays.

Although the pressure to end discrimination and segregation began earlier, Kennedy’s assassination slowed the process. However, after Kennedy’s death, Johnson resumed his search for legislation that would prohibit segregation in public places such as cafeterias, restaurants, theaters and hotels.

It also ended segregation in public schools, libraries and swimming pools, and made discriminatory labor practices illegal for the first time.

Author Jonathan Eigthe author of “King: A Life,” told NewsNation that Johnson found himself with more political capital as the new president after Kennedy’s death while the nation grieved.

Johnson worked with civil rights leaders, including King, and grassroots activists who kept up the pressure for civil rights legislation to be signed into law. The bill remained filibustered for 60 days as ongoing debate among lawmakers, led primarily by Southern Democrats, delayed the bill’s passage.

“The greatest strength was moral, really – which the nation needed to embrace a more democratic future,” Eig said. “Of course there was politics involved, but there was finally a sense that this is what democracies do. They expand rights, they expand freedom, and eventually that would have to win.”

The current pressure for equal rights

While Juneteenth’s status as a federal holiday was an important milestone, the occasion — like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — continues to face challenges, Horsford says.

While progress has been made, especially when it comes to voter rights, Horsford said challenges remain, including in several Southern states where many Black Americans face what he called oppressive and repressive voting laws.

Vice President Kamala Harris called for Wednesday to be a day of action around voter rights to ensure all Americans are registered and have equal access to the polls ahead of the November general election, which may be partially split along lines racial.

The election comes as the Congressional Black Caucus is working with the Biden administration and other groups to fill that gap, at a time when the average white family has a per capita wealth of about $280,000, compared to a per capita of about $44,000 for the average black family.

These inequities, along with similar struggles with housing, entrepreneurship, as well as investment and savings opportunities, have an impact on the everyday lives of many Black Americans, he said.

In your Report on the State of Black America to 2024, the National Urban League says that while this year marks the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, the journey toward racial justice is far from complete.

“No issue in history has met with more resistance in the United States Congress than civil rights,” Marc Morial, the organization’s president and CEO, wrote in the report.

These injustices need to be discussed regularly, Horsford said, because they represent the feelings of those who are most affected. But while Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery, June also recognizes Pride Month for LGBTQ+ communities and approaches the anniversary of the overturn of Roe vs. Wade.

Horsford said the struggles of many Americans across racial and gender lines continue as there are “forces” that are trying to take the country back to where it was before the passage of the Civil Rights Act and are trying to erode fundamental rights. of so many Americans. . This week, he said, creates an opportunity to recognize how much work remains.

However, Eig, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, says the ongoing struggles should not diminish the work the Civil Rights Act has done.

“The fact that we haven’t resolved all of our issues is a reflection on us, not the law,” Eig said. “We still fight for racism and racism is a persistent and underlying problem in our society and segregation remains in many aspects. …The fight continues, but that doesn’t mean the law hasn’t had a huge impact.”