Team,

Juneteenth marks the day the news of freedom finally reached Black Americans in Galveston, Texas — two and a half full years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. 

This Juneteenth, the 160th anniversary, holds a heavier weight for me. Across the country, we are witnessing attempts to suppress the ability to build a truly representative, multi-racial democracy — a direct threat to some of the very freedoms that this Freedom Day commemorates. 

In Texas, where the celebration of Juneteenth was born, partisan and racial gerrymandering lives and thrives. 

Texas was already being sued for violating the U.S. Constitution and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting power of the state’s communities of color. 

And just last week, the news broke that President Trump is actively pressuring Texas lawmakers to redraw its already-gerrymandered congressional map in an effort to gain an even more extreme partisan advantage. 

On this poignant and powerful anniversary, let’s recommit to the notion that our freedom is directly proportional to our power at the ballot box. Let us remember that Juneteenth is not only a celebration, but a reminder that the march toward true, lived freedom is far from over. 

Ours is a righteous fight, and I’m proud to be part of it alongside you. 

In service,

Eric H. Holder, Jr.
82nd Attorney General of the United States

All On The Line is the grassroots advocacy campaign supported by the National Redistricting Action Fund. Support our work to end gerrymandering.

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