Friends,

Today, on Juneteenth, we commemorate the end of slavery in America, when Union troops brought news to slaves in Galveston, Texas that the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed and that they were free.

I was heartened that under President Biden’s leadership, we were finally able to make Juneteenth a national holiday last year, something that was very important to me.

But as we know, true liberation for Black Americans remains elusive. While our nation outlawed slavery over a century and a half ago, new forms of injustice took its place, and there is a lot of work ahead of us to address the systemic inequalities that remain today.

Let’s use this holiday to reflect on our past so that the progress we’ve made will help guide us toward building a better future.

Happy Juneteenth.

– David