Hoyer Statement on Juneteenth

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Source: https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/488494646/hoyer-statement-on-juneteenth

WASHINGTON, DC – House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today recognizing Juneteenth, the oldest, nationally-celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States:

“On Juneteenth, we remember the liberation of the final group of enslaved African Americans in 1865 and commemorate the struggle for freedom and equality that spanned the eras of slavery, segregation, and the ongoing march for civil rights.  The work of abolition is unfinished because the color of one’s skin still means disparities in access to health care, education, and job opportunities, in addition to challenges to ballot access.  Abolition will not be fully achieved until every single descendant of African American slaves has an equal opportunity to make it in America and an equal voice in our democracy.    “That’s what I will continue to fight for in Congress, alongside my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus.  We must work to protect and expand voting rights, end poverty, pursue criminal justice reform, and address disparities in health care, among other critical issues.  We must continue the work of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, W.E.B. DeBois, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Height, and others who carried on the work of abolition even after the first Juneteenth, recognizing that the end of slavery by itself was only the first step in the long march toward freedom.”