June 18, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 113 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Pages S3098-S3099]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               JUNETEENTH

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, tomorrow, we will commemorate the 155th 
Juneteenth, the celebration of the end of chattel slavery in the United 
States. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger and Union 
soldiers delivered the news of liberation to one of the last remaining 
confederate outposts in Galveston, TX. The Civil War had ended, and the 
last remaining enslaved Black Americans were free. General Gordon's 
decree would arrive over 2 years after President Abraham Lincoln issued 
the Emancipation Proclamation.
  For millions of Black Americans, Juneteenth traditionally has been a 
celebration of this freedom; it is also a day of reflection and 
education on a history that we all must confront. There is much to 
inform us about our present times that we can learn from the story of 
Juneteenth. It is the story of America, the story of my home State of 
Maryland. Each year, I aim to share these lessons and resources with my 
constituents through my office and in recognizing the continued work we 
must do to elevate Black history and create a more tolerant society. 
This year, my office will close to commemorate the holiday and allow 
staff the time to reflect on its important historical lessons.
  Juneteenth is a reminder that, even after the signing of Abraham 
Lincoln's seminal declaration, that even in a Nation whose founding 
documents should have enshrined liberty and justice for all of its 
inhabitants, freedom was a dream deferred for Black Americans. It is a 
reminder that liberation was hard fought by those who were denied it, 
including abolition leaders like Marylanders Frederick Douglass and 
Harriet Tubman, who then passed the torch to civil rights leaders and 
social movements past and present who are still fighting to realize 
equal justice under law. Equal justice under law is a promise the 
Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the 
Emancipation Proclamation all made, but it remains elusive, so the 
struggle continues.
  In this way, Juneteenth is a quintessential American holiday. The 
institution of chattel slavery is interwoven throughout American 
history and would become the architecture for unjust systems that still 
stand today. The Juneteenth liberation would precede over a century of 
continued oppression, oppression through stigmatization, policymaking, 
voter disenfranchisement, and Jim Crow segregation laws, which 
continued to widen the gaps of social, economic, and political 
achievement for Black Americans in our society. Acknowledging its 
sinister legacy and the efforts to chip away at it are critical to 
understanding how to dismantle it from its core.

[[Page S3099]]

  Through the lens of recent tragedies--the police killings of Breonna 
Taylor, George Floyd and, just this week, Rayshard Brooks--and the 
worldwide anti-racism protests they have sparked, this education is 
more important than ever. We are being called to connect the dots in 
our history and take action to bring about meaningful change, to save 
lives, and to right the wrongs of the past. We are being called, yet 
again, to answer in what ways are our constitutional promises still 
left unfulfilled for Black Americans?
  Answering this question is essential to addressing police and 
criminal justice reform. From the establishment of deputized slave 
patrols in the American South, to the enforcement of segregation laws 
through the 1960s, to mass incarceration and disproportionate police 
violence in our present day, Black Americans have often faced systemic 
racism that the law either required or permitted. The same 13th 
Amendment that abolished slavery did so in all forms except 
incarceration, shrouding the institution in a new light and enabling 
the continued suppression of freedom and rights.
  Today, Black Americans are still twice as likely to be killed by 
police as White Americans. And despite representing only 12 percent of 
the U.S. adult population, Black Americans make up 33 percent of the 
sentenced prison population. We have seen the brutal videos. We see the 
painful list of names of men and women killed at the hands of police 
brutality. We see the effects of this cyclical system on the health of 
our communities and families every day. We must act to stop it.
  The roots of systemic racism in law enforcement were planted 
centuries ago and can be unraveled with targeted and conscious action. 
This is why I have been proud to work with my colleagues Senators 
Booker and Harris on crafting police reform legislation that works 
toward justice and systemic change, the Justice in Policing Act. This 
broader legislation includes two bills I have introduced for several 
years, the End Racial and Religious Profiling Act and the Law 
Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act. The Justice in Policing Act would 
prohibit racial profiling, improve officer training, and hold officers 
accountable for the misconduct that keeps alive the culture has 
reinforced centuries of oppression. I hope the Senate can pass this 
bill. Equal treatment of individuals under the law must not be a 
partisan issue.
  All Americans must recognize and celebrate Juneteenth so that we may 
face these harsh realities about our past and present and understand 
that the fight for freedom is ongoing. We cannot ignore our past, for 
it is with us here in the present in many forms. The wounds of our 
Nation will not heal until we identify and name their source and commit 
to doing the work in Congress and in our communities to mend them. 
Freedom has never been free, nor has it ever come easily. Let us 
celebrate liberation by doing everything we can to fight for it for 
generations to come.

                          ____________________