Presidential Document2024-13963
Juneteenth Day of Observance, 2024
Primary source
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Published
June 24, 2024
Signed
June 18, 2024
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 121 (Monday, June 24, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 121 (Monday, June 24, 2024)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 52997-52998]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-13963]
[[Page 52995]]
Vol. 89
Monday,
No. 121
June 24, 2024
Part IV
The President
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Proclamation 10778--Juneteenth Day of Observance, 2024
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 89 , No. 121 / Monday, June 24, 2024 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 52997]]
Proclamation 10778 of June 18, 2024
Juneteenth Day of Observance, 2024
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
On June 19, 1865, freedom finally came for the 250,000
enslaved people of Texas. That day, which would become
known as Juneteenth, the Army arrived to enforce what
had already been the law of the land for two and a half
years--the Emancipation Proclamation. Today, we
recognize that Juneteenth not only marks the end of
America's original sin of slavery but also the
beginning of the work at the heart and soul of our
Nation: making the promise of America real for every
American.
One of my proudest moments as President was signing
into law Juneteenth as a new Federal holiday--the first
Federal holiday to be established since Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. Day four decades prior. Juneteenth is
an acknowledgment of the truth of our Nation's history.
It is about realizing the idea that America was founded
on: All people are created equal and deserve to be
treated equally throughout their lives. It is about the
generations of brave Black leaders and selfless
activists who never let us walk away from that idea,
including Ms. Opal Lee, whom I awarded the Medal of
Freedom for her work as the grandmother of Juneteenth,
and former State Representative Al Edwards, who
authored the bill to designate it a holiday in Texas.
My Administration is working to ensure we continue to
deliver on that idea--creating a country that truly
stands for freedom, justice, dignity, and opportunity
for all. Today, record numbers of Black Americans have
jobs and health insurance, and Black business ownership
is growing at the fastest pace in over 30 years. We are
investing more money than ever in Black families and
communities. That includes the funding we are
delivering to support predominantly Black neighborhoods
that had been divided and left behind by segregation
and racial discrimination, the checks we delivered that
reduced Black child poverty to the lowest rate in
history, the changes we have made to the appraisals
process to root out biases that put Black homeowners at
a disadvantage, and the over $16 billion investment in
Historically Black Colleges and Universities so that we
can ensure the next generation of Black leaders has
equal opportunities for a quality education and
pathways for economic mobility. We are working to
rebuild and strengthen all of America by removing every
lead pipe across our country, delivering affordable
high-speed internet, forgiving $167 billion in student
loan debt, and creating good-paying jobs that you can
raise a family on. We are creating a new sense of pride
and dignity in communities across the country.
As we work to make history, my Administration is also
working to tell our Nation's history instead of erasing
it. That is why I signed a law, which had been more
than 100 years in the making, to designate lynching as
a Federal hate crime. I designated the Emmett Till and
Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument to preserve
historic sites and cultural resources in Mississippi
and Illinois so that we never forget the brutal
lynching of Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955 and the
subsequent courage of his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley,
who made sure our Nation would never forget her son. I
have honored some of our country's greatest Black
scholars, humanitarians, and artists, who dare to tell
the good, bad, and truth of
[[Page 52998]]
our Nation. We are writing new chapters of our history,
and I am proud to have the most diverse Administration
ever to tap into the full talents of our Nation--
including the first Black woman Vice President of the
United States, Kamala Harris--and to have appointed the
first Black woman as a Justice on the United States
Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson. Meanwhile, we are
also working to secure the right to vote--with which
anything is possible.
On Juneteenth, may we celebrate the essence of freedom
that galvanized the country, the progress we have made
in our Nation, and all that is possible when we march
forward together. May we all recommit to redeeming the
very soul of America--choosing love over hate, unity
over division, and progress over retreat.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 19, 2024,
as Juneteenth Day of Observance. I call upon the people
of the United States to acknowledge and condemn the
history of slavery in our Nation and recognize how the
impact of America's original sin remains. I call on
every American to celebrate Juneteenth and recommit to
working together to eradicate systemic racism and
inequity in our society wherever they find it.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
eighteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
eighth.
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(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2024-13963
Filed 6-21-24; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P
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