Gavin Newsom Makes Big Announcement About Juneteenth

Gavin Newsom made a statement about Juneteenth as California celebrates it as a state holiday for the first time...

Photo byGage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons

Governor Gavin Newsom recently issued a proclamation about Juneteenth in the state of California. "America does not only celebrate our independence on July 4," he said. "Each year on June 19, we look back to this day in 1865, on which Union General Gordon Granger led troops into Galveston, Texas, to announce the end of the Civil War and the insidious institution of slavery. Thousands of enslaved people in Texas, among the last to learn of their independence, were finally freed – more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation."

Governor Newsom went on to say that Black Americans who fled the South in search of a better life brought Juneteenth celebrations with them. The thousands of people who settled in California, particularly in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, taught the state that America's struggle for liberty did not end in 1776 or 1865, but continues to this day.

"For the first time this year, California will celebrate Juneteenth as a state holiday, honoring the centuries of struggles and triumphs that have brought us to this moment," said California Governor Gavin Newsom. "Amid misguided efforts to rewrite our nation’s history, California is committed to confronting the dark chapters of our past to continue moving forward in pursuit of a more perfect union."

"I urge all Californians to reflect on the ongoing cause of freedom for Black Americans," Newsom continued. "Remembering that, though General Granger’s announcement in 1865 called for 'absolute equality,' that vision was, and remains, far from complete. Let us celebrate how far we have come and take stock of how far we must go to truly realize our nation’s founding ideals."

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