SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today issued a proclamation declaring Juneteenth National Freedom Day: A Day of Observance” in the State of California.
The text of the proclamation and a copy can be found below:
PROCLAMATION
America doesn’t just celebrate its independence on July 4th. Every year on June 19, we remember the day in 1865 when Union General Gordon Granger led his troops into Galveston, Texas, to announce the end of the Civil War and the insidious Civil War. institution of slavery. Thousands of Texas slaves, among the last to learn their independence, were finally freed – more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
In subsequent decades, black Americans who left the South in search of a better life took Juneteenth celebrations with them. The thousands who settled California, particularly in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, taught our state that the American struggle for freedom did not end in 1776 or 1865, but that it still continues today.
California is proud to recognize Juneteenth as an official holiday, honoring the centuries of struggles and triumphs that have brought us to this moment. Amid misguided efforts to rewrite our nation’s history, California is determined to confront the dark chapters of our past to continue moving toward a more perfect union.
This June 19, I urge all Californians to consider the current cause of freedom for Black Americans – remembering that although General Granger’s 1865 announcement called for “absolute equality,” that vision was and remains far from complete. Let us celebrate how far we have come and take stock of how far we must go to truly realize the founding ideals of our nation.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor of the State of California, hereby proclaim June 15, 2024, “the 1st National Freedom Day: A Day of Observance.”
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed with the Great Seal of the State of California this June 14, 2024.
GAVIN NEWSOM
Governor of California
CERTIFICATE:
SHIRLEY N. WEBER, Ph.D.
Secretary of State
