Dear Friend,
This and every Juneteenth, we celebrate freedom and the extraordinary resilience of enslaved African Americans – those finally freed on June 19th, 1865, and those across the nation who were freed in the years before and the six months that followed.
Juneteenth also demands that we face with unflinching resolve our nation’s painful history of subjecting our fellow Americans to the unthinkable cruelty of slavery. It calls on all of us to commit to the work of bettering our great nation as we right the wrongs of inequality and injustice.
This is a road that requires us to remember our history, not erase it. To treat all people equally and with dignity, not disrespect and cruelty. Today and every day, we must honor each other’s humanity and, together, demand ‘liberty and justice for all.’
Sincerely,
MARTIN HEINRICH
United States Senator