Juneteenth

Floor Speech

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Ms. SMITH. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Maryland. I rise today in gratitude because last night the Senate put us one step forward to finally making Juneteenth a Federal holiday.

Juneteenth is our Nation's oldest celebration of emancipation, and it should have been established as a Federal holiday long ago. So I am glad that yesterday the Senate passed our bill, with Senator Markey and Senator Booker, the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, by unanimous consent.

The end of slavery in this country is a central milestone in our history, and Juneteenth should be commemorated nationwide as a day of celebration and reflection and rededication to the cause of racial justice in this country.

I am forever grateful to the generations of activists who made this possible, and, in particular, I want to thank Ms. Opal Lee, who at 89 years old walked halfway across this country to rise in support of Juneteenth as a Federal holiday.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to call Ms. Lee, now in her nineties, after this bill cleared the Senate, and I wish you could have heard the sound of joy in her voice when I told her the good news. This is a memory that I know I am going to treasure for the rest of my life.

So to Ms. Lee, if you are listening here today, I want to tell you that I have been honored to support your moral cause here in the Senate, and I hope to celebrate Juneteenth as an official Federal holiday with you soon.

I also want to thank my colleagues, especially Senator Markey and Senators Booker and Warnock, for their leadership on these efforts, as well as Senator Cornyn and Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, for their work to get this over the finish line. When it passed last night, we had over 60 bipartisan cosponsors, and I am grateful to all of them and all of you for your support.

So commemorating Juneteenth as a Federal holiday is an encouraging and meaningful step, but we have so much farther to go on the path toward justice. Let's use this victory to build momentum for the systemic change that we need--protecting voting rights and safeguarding our democracy, passing meaningful policing and criminal justice reform, pursuing economic and environmental justice, and working toward a more just and equitable world.

There will be plenty of times when this path seems impossibly long because the scale of the injustice is overwhelming. But when this happens, I will be thinking of Ms. Opal Lee, of her long walk to Washington, DC, and the joy in her voice when she heard the news that the Senate had taken one more step toward her dream of Juneteenth. May we all draw inspiration and strength from her example.

I am proud to walk this path with you, Ms. Lee, and with all of you. Let's keep this going.

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