 John, After President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, it took more than two years for the news to reach the last enslaved Americans. June 19th, or Juneteenth, is commemorated as the day that the last enslaved people were freed in Galveston, Texas in 1865. I am descended from enslaved people. I am also descended from people who took oaths to fight in foreign countries to guarantee the rights of life, liberty, and happiness they were denied here in the United States under Jim Crow. Their service inspired my own. Today, we celebrate a defining moment when justice and equality were advanced for all Americans. But we must continue taking bold action to address the racial injustice that persists today. As a Black man who has served our country as an Air Force Veteran, a trauma surgeon, and a community leader, I have navigated our country’s complicated relationship with race firsthand. I have treated patients in my emergency department whose need for my care was a direct result of racial disparities resulting from historical policies. And I’ve told far too many mothers and fathers that they wouldn’t see their child alive again as a result of gun violence. Gun violence disproportionately affects Black Americans, and as a surgeon, I grew weary of putting bandaids on bullet holes in Black men and women and then sending them back to environments where they remained at high risk of reinjury and death. I’m running for Congress because I want to bring my firsthand experience from the frontlines of our epidemic of gun violence to Washington. We need the voice of a trauma surgeon and a Black doctor at the decision-making table in Congress. I’m dedicated to ensuring that equality for everyone isn’t merely an ideal, but a reality for each and every American. That means investing in education, better healthcare access, and affordable housing in the communities that continue to experience the direct results of structural racism today. I’m not asking you to contribute to my campaign. Instead, I hope you’ll take a moment to think both about the importance of today, and the work we’ve yet to do to make equality a reality for all. Happy Juneteenth, Brian
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