Dear John,

Miss Opal Lee, the grandmother of Juneteenth, once said “None of us are free until we're all free.”

On June 19, 1865, the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared slaves living in Confederate states to be free, had already been in effect for more than two years. And yet, Black Texans were not free.

It wasn’t until the Union soldiers finally arrived in Galveston, Texas that their freedom was made real and their celebration of prayer, food, song, and dance could begin. 

Slavery was over, but many Black Americans were still not free until that Monday in June.

This is the spirit of Juneteenth. We don’t celebrate the day when change is announced for some. We celebrate the day when justice is made real for every last one of us.

Growing up as the son of educators in Mobile, Alabama, serving in the United States Army, and now working as a Congressman representing Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District, I have seen firsthand the progress we’ve made in this country over the decades I’ve served in public life.

But there are still so many of us left behind.

Today, we remember our history, we celebrate how far we’ve come, and we recommit to Miss Opal Lee’s words: “None of us are free until we're all free.”

Happy Juneteenth,

Congressman Sanford D. Bishop