Senate Unanimously passes Juneteenth Holiday Bill - update House Pass 7:30PM
About time - S. 475 now headed to President Biden’s desk for his signature
The House Roll Call Vote 170 hasn’t been updated - but this link will take you to Roll Call Vote 170 - the Juneteenth Bill is now headed to President Biden’s desk - where it will be signed in to law..
Imagine being that ahole in the House of Representatives - Good JOB Kevin QANON- McCarthy - you can’t even hide the unrepentant racist douche-baggettes in your own QANON-Caucus
The racist House Republicans aka douche-baggettes
Biggs, Brooks, Clyde, DesJarlais, Gosar, Jackson, LaMalfa Massie, McClintock, Norman, Rogers (AL), Rosendale, Roy, Tiffany
It is kind of a rare occurrence when I have something nice or constructive to say about the United States Senate. Yet here I am and 1863 to 2021 that’s how long it took for Congress to Actualize
July 5, 1852 Frederick Douglas
In his Speech What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Frederick Douglas, the great orator poured his heart and soul into his rousing speech
Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too, great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory…
…Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?"
I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us.
On January 1, 1863 - President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in which he declared “all persons held as slaves” in rebellious states as free people. And it took Congress 157 years to legislate Juneteenth as a Federal Holiday. Technically it’s not law <yet> the House needs to vote and then President Biden needs to sign - then it becomes law - sorry to be a stickler for accuracy sake…
What is Juneteenth and why it matters
On June 19, 1865, marks the date that Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, TX, and announced the end of both the Civil War and slavery. His announcement, General Order Number 3 reads in part:
The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property, between former masters and slaves and the connection heretofore existing between them, becomes that between employer and hired labor. The Freedmen are advised to remain at their present homes and work for wages.
They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.
A copy of the handwritten General Order Number 3 can be viewed via the National Archives, found here
Negro National Anthem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing."
Trust me on this, stop what you are doing and listen to “Lift Every Voice and Sing”if you’re curious this Library of Congress Link will take you to the lyrics
S.475 - Juneteenth National Independence Day Act
To amend title 5, United States Code, to designate Juneteenth National Independence Day as a legal public holiday.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Juneteenth National Independence Day Act’’
“..commemorate the end of slavery in the US by establishing Juneteenth as a legal public holiday..”
What happens next?
The Senate Bill S.457 will now go to the House of Representatives and then it will go to President Biden’s desk - that said it should be noted on February 25, 2021 H.R.1320 - Juneteenth National Independence Day Act - and was sent to the House OverSight Committee
Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
-Filey
I am listening to the anthem, and I am wracked with shivers. ❤️🎶
This is long overdue but it's finally it is done 🇺🇲
Hallelujah! A day of celebration of freedom. So long in coming. Tragically, many States have put laws in place to stop teaching the very reason for Juneteenth. Thank you, File-y. Much appreciated!