[ad_1]
After U.S. President Joe Biden designated June 19 as a federal holiday, black Americans rejoiced on Thursday, but some said that although they appreciate the recognition during the racial liquidation in the country, more is needed To change policies that are unfavorable to many of their brothers.
“It’s great, but it’s not enough,” said Gwen Grant, president and CEO of the Kansas City City League. Grant said she was pleased that both houses of Congress quickly voted this week to designate June as a federal holiday because “it has been a long time.”
But she added, “We need Congress to protect voting rights. This needs to happen now so that we don’t go backwards. This is the most important thing that Congress can resolve at this time.”
At the cheering White House bill signing ceremony, Biden agreed that it is not only necessary to commemorate the events of June 19, 1865. It was then that Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to the enslaved black people in Galveston, Texas—about two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation released slaves in the southern states.
“This day is not just a celebration of the past. It requires action today,” Biden said before the establishment of June Festival National Independence Day. His audience included dozens of congressmen and Opal Lee, a 94-year-old Texas woman running for this holiday.
Efforts to limit education
Biden regards voting rights as an area of ??action.
Republican-led states have enacted or are considering legislation, and activists believe that these legislatures restrict voting rights, especially for people of color. Legislation addressing the voting rights issue, and the police reforms required after the killing of George Floyd and other unarmed blacks, remained stagnant in Congress, which took swift action on the June Festival Act.
Others hope that the federal government will provide compensation or financial compensation to the descendants of slaves to make up for these mistakes.
At the same time, efforts are being made across the country to restrict school districts’ teaching about the history of slavery in the United States
Community organizer Kimberly Holmes-Ross helped her hometown of Evanston, Illinois, become the first city in the United States to pay indemnities. She said she is happy with the new federal holiday because it will guide more people to learn about June Festival.
But she hopes that Congress will first take action on anti-lynching legislation or voter protection.
Holmes-Ross, 57, said: “I’m not really excited because everything else is going on. You haven’t solved what we really need to talk about.”
Many states are already celebrating June
Penil Joseph, an expert on race issues at the University of Texas at Austin, said that the United States has never had a holiday or a national commemoration of the end of slavery. But many black Americans have long celebrated June Festival.
“June is iconic and we need to follow the essence, but black history has always tried to do multiple things at the same time,” Joseph said.
Most federal workers will celebrate the holiday this Friday because the 19th is the weekend. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced that state and city government offices will be closed on Friday to commemorate June Festival. Public schools in the District of Columbia will also be closed on Friday.
June Festival is the 12th federal holiday, including the inauguration day every four years. This is also the first federal holiday since the creation of Martin Luther King Holiday in 1983.
Before June 19 becomes a federal holiday, most states and the District of Columbia will comply with this rule. Texas designated June as a holiday for the first time in 1980.
The Senate passed the bill unanimously earlier this week. But in the House of Representatives, 14 Republicans voted against, including Texas Representative Chip Roy. Roy said the June Festival is worthy of commemoration, but he opposed the use of “independence” in the name of the festival.
He said in a statement: “This name unnecessarily divides our country on one issue, but should unite us by creating a separate independence day based on a person’s skin color.”
Arizona Rep. Paul Gossall also voted against the bill. He said: “We have an Independence Day, and it applies equally to all people of all races.”
The mood in Texas is different. This is the first state to make June Festival a state holiday.
“I’m very happy,” said 70-year-old Doug Matthew, a former city manager of Galveston, who has helped coordinate the June festival in the community since Texas made it a holiday. Celebrations.
He believes that the work of state and local leaders paved the way for Congress to take action this week.
“I’m also proud that everything started in Galveston,” Matthew said.
[ad_2]
Source link
