Folks,

This year marks the fourth anniversary of Juneteenth as a federal holiday. While it is a “new” holiday for most Americans, it is not new to the Black community.

Celebrated for over 150 years as Freedom Day, it can be argued that Juneteenth is more of an Independence Day than the 4th of July.

Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 that the last enslaved people were finally liberated when federal troops moved into Galveston, TX to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation signed nearly 3 years earlier.

While I wholly support the move to officially recognize this massively significant historical event in Black American history, it is also crucial that we understand our work is FAR from done.

Symbolic gestures do not absolve us of our duty to atone for America’s original sin of slavery. Celebrating the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by creating a Federal holiday didn’t end racism, and neither will doing the same for Juneteenth.

Even as we advance with hard-won civil rights, the two parties in power and their billionaire benefactors continue working to strip marginalized people of their rights.

Black Americans today are still subjected to relentless state violence through police brutality and mass incarceration. They still face economic devastation through starvation wages and unaffordable housing. And their right to vote is still under assault.

I’m running for Congress because we need people who will listen to Black leaders and show up as allies in the fight for racial justice.

I fully support reparations for American Descendents of Slavery and will support any legislation led and endorsed by Black lawmakers that establishes reparations.

I support the federal legalization of cannabis, releasing prisoners who were imprisoned under the racist drug laws, and helping them rebuild their lives.

I will fight for housing justice, labor rights, and investments that empower and uplift the Black community.

My opponent in this race has spent the last quarter century in office opposing every one of the policies that would address these systemic injustices.

Black history is American history, and justice for Black Americans is our path to shared prosperity and peace – because none of us are free until everyone is free.

Celebrate Juneteenth. Reflect on its meaning. But know that there is so much more to do.

In solidarity,

Jason