Juneteenth and Slavery Remembrance Day

Floor Speech

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Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, and still I rise. Still I rise, proud to be a person who is blessed with the preeminent privilege of standing here and speaking in this most sacred Chamber, proud to be a person who is in service to his country, proud to acknowledge that we, in Houston, Texas, just celebrated Juneteenth, the day that General Gordon Granger read General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas.

General Order No. 3 was read at Galveston, Texas, to call to the attention of the people of the State of Texas that the Emancipation Proclamation had some 2\1/2\ years earlier freed the slaves in the Confederate States. Of course, the people in Texas did not honor the Emancipation Proclamation. Hence, people were maintained in slavery for some 2\1/2\ additional years.

General Gordon Granger didn't come to Galveston, Texas, alone. General Gordon Granger came with the 25th Army Corps. The 25th Army Corps liberated Galveston, Texas.

It was the 25th Army Corps that came to Galveston and ran the confederates out of town, as it were. It is said that they were chased to the border of Mexico, which allowed General Gordon Granger to read General Order No. 3. But for the 25th Army Corps, General Gordon Granger may not have been in a position to read General Order No. 3 on June 19, because the 25th Army Corps came in about a week earlier.

The 25th Army Corps was more than 1,000 persons strong and consisted primarily of persons who were of African ancestry. It was African people who fought to liberate Galveston, Texas. Hence, we have Juneteenth.

There is much more that I could say about Juneteenth and General Order No. 3 as well as the 25th Army Corps. We have presented a resolution to honor the 25th Army Corps for their bravery and for their valor. Much more is to be said about them.

Today, I want to move forward from Juneteenth. I would like to acknowledge it as a celebration of liberation, persons being liberated after having suffered the inhumanity associated with slavery.

I mention this Juneteenth date, because we will soon commemorate August 20. August 20 is Slavery Remembrance Day. Remember, Juneteenth was the celebration of liberation. August 20 is the commemoration of the millions who were enslaved.

I mention it now, because as we move toward this date, I want persons to take note of it. It is an important date in American history. It is important because it was on August 20, 1619, that the White Lion, a ship with, it is said, 20 enslaved persons of African ancestry aboard, were introduced to the Colonies which would go on to become the United States of America, or part of the United States of America.

These 20 persons represent the genesis of slavery in the United States of America. This date should not be forgotten. This date should be commemorated. It was a seminal moment in time that has impacted every scintilla of time since that day, August 20, 1619.

We should remember this day. We should commemorate it because of the lives that were lost and the suffering that was endured by the many persons who traversed the waters and the many who did not make it.

We should remember it because of the persons who did make it and what they contributed to this country. They were the persons who made America the great country it is because they were the economic foundational mothers and fathers of the country. As such, they deserve to be honored and they deserve to have their lives respected.

They were not just throwaways. They were not people who came here to do harm. They were brought here forcefully to help, and they did for some 246 years.

We should commemorate this date, August 20, and we should do so annually. The President of the United States of America has acknowledged August 20. I am proud to say that the Honorable Elizabeth Warren has joined me in this effort to spread the word and assure the commemoration of August 20 as Slavery Remembrance Day. The President acknowledged it. This House of Representatives has acknowledged August 20, 1619, as Slavery Remembrance Day. I want to make sure that we are mindful of this day as it approaches and as we approach it.

I want us to be mindful of it because I want us to set aside time to have a commemoration event. This is important. I liken this commemoration event to Holocaust remembrance. I am one of those persons who has great reverence for Holocaust remembrance.

When last we had an event here in the Capitol for Holocaust remembrance, I was there, and I was there the time before. I pray that I will be there next year and the many years after. I believe that the Holocaust was an event unlike any other in history, and we have to commemorate it with a degree of solemnity the lives that were lost so as to not only appreciate what happened during the Holocaust but also to assure ourselves that it will never happen again. It was a crime against humanity unlike any other.

I liken slavery remembrance to the Holocaust because it, too, was a crime against humanity unlike any other, and it too should be commemorated in a similar fashion. We should have solemnity for slavery remembrance, and we should also have slavery remembrance events. People should take the time to commemorate the lives that were lost just as we do for the Holocaust. We do this, and we should do it for both events.

I stand here today to say to my country: Let us give slavery remembrance the same respect that we accord Holocaust remembrance. Both of them were crimes against humanity unlike each other. Each was unlike any other crime.

They are events that ought to be commemorated.

My desire, coupled with many others, I might add, who are joining me, is to have an event to commemorate the lives that were lost.

We want to at that event acknowledge certain things, acknowledge that we believe this should be a holy day, not a holiday. Not a holiday. We are not asking the Federal Government to allow people to be off from work. We are not asking the Federal Government to pay anyone a special salary and allow them to be away from work.

We are just asking that the people who respect the day to respect the day, and if you have African ancestry, then respect yourself enough to commemorate August 20. It is not a holiday; it is a holy day. The distinction is we are not asking the government to recognize it as a holiday with some emolument to be accorded to people who work for the government. We just want people to respect the more than 10 million lives who were sacrificed to make America great.

Madam Speaker, respect them and give them the same respect we give others who have made sacrifice for this country. Others have sacrificed, and they should be respected, as well. We respect the military for the sacrifices made. I respect the military for the sacrifices made. I honor those who are willing to sacrifice and join the military.

Those who were part of the American enslaved didn't join. They weren't recruited, they were forced. They ought to be respected just as we respect the lives lost in the wars. We should respect the lives lost to slavery in this great country made great because of those persons who were enslaved for some 246 years.

Let's respect them. Do this on August 20, and let's respect them to the same extent that we have respected persons who were members of the Confederacy. I say that because in the year 1956, the Congress of the United States of America presented a Congressional Gold Medal to the Confederate soldiers. A Congressional Gold Medal. I believe that we should accord a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslaved. To the enslaved a Congressional Gold Medal should be presented.

If we can present a Congressional Gold Medal to the Confederate soldiers who were fighting to maintain slavery, then surely we can present a Congressional Gold Medal to those who were enslaved. I think we should do it.

On August 20 we will talk about this Congressional Gold Medal and what we are doing to make this Congressional Gold Medal a reality for those who were enslaved, but we shouldn't stop there. The Congressional Gold Medal is something that they have earned by their labor. Their unpaid labor hasn't been properly addressed, but because of their labor and because of the sacrifice of being born into slavery and having lived in slavery and died as a slave, then that kind of sacrifice ought to be honored.

I believe that we will do this at some point across the length and breadth of the country, but that is not enough. I also believe that the President of the United States should award a Presidential Medal of Freedom to the enslaved. We have given Presidential Medals of Freedom to many persons, and I am not in any way contending that we should not have given them their Presidential Medals of Freedom.

What I am saying is that we have neglected the 10 million-plus persons whose lives were sacrificed to make America great. We ought to give them a Presidential Medal of Freedom, as well.

On August 20 we will commemorate their lives with dignity and solemnity. We will explain what we have done in moving toward the Congressional Gold Medal, as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Finally, I believe that we who have suffered ought to be of assistance to each other in helping to commemorate the suffering. When I say we who have suffered, I am talking about our ancestors having suffered. We ought to stand together. We ought to work together.

When there is Holocaust remembrance, I believe people who have suffered as the descendants, the scions, if you will, of those who were enslaved, I think we ought to do all that we can to be a party to Holocaust remembrance. Moreover, likewise, I believe that my Jewish brothers and sisters ought to be a party to slavery remembrance.

We have suffered. The suffering ought not be something that is simply another day as far as the day of recognition and then we go off. I believe that there is a certain amount of unity that suffering requires of people who have suffered. That is because suffering can teach you what you can learn no other way. It really teaches you why it is so important to respect the lives of those who suffered.

You suffer as a descendant. I don't mean suffer in the same sense as your ancestors or our ancestors, but we still suffer, and we are going to suffer, but we ought to commemorate the lives lost. That helps greatly.

I am inviting my friends of all hues to be a party to the Slavery Remembrance Day event. We will say more about it later as far as time and location, inviting everyone, with a special invitation to my friends who are descendants of the persons who suffered the Holocaust.

I extend a special invitation to those persons who are descendants of those who suffered the Trail of Tears and a special invitation to those who were interned. There are American citizens whose Asian ancestors were interned because they were suspected, but never proven, to be antithetical to the best interests of the country.

I extend a special invitation to the Latinos who have suffered in that there is land that was removed from Mexico that became a part of the United States. Many people lost their lives in battles associated with that conflict.

I extend a special invitation to anyone and everyone who, which probably would mean every person alive, has some degree of ancestors who have suffered in a similar sense. They are all separate and they are all different, but I respect all of the suffering. I invite persons to come to the Slavery Remembrance Day.

Let us now start the process of not only remembrance but also making it special by awarding this Congressional Gold Medal and this Presidential Medal of Freedom.

I am a scion of the enslaved persons--a scion, by the way, is a descendant--a scion of the enslaved persons whose lives were sacrificed to make America great. As a scion, I respect all who have suffered the indignity and injustice of having their ancestors suffer. I invite scions of all hues, of all stripes, to come together on Slavery Remembrance Day, August 20.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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