Hello everyone!

I have created this petition in the hopes of making Juneteenth a nationally-observed holiday. In the midst of the Movement for Black Lives–catalyzed by the unfortunate death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and the countless Black and Brown lives lost at the hands of police brutality–we are at a moment in which we have the power to strive for the change we not only wish to see, but for the future we deserve.

A national recognition of Juneteenth as a holiday should be part of the larger conversation. On June 19th, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. This was 2.5 years after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which became official on January 1, 1863.

As of today, June 16, 2020, 47 of the 50 U.S. states currently recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday or special day of observance. It is now time to make it national.

Juneteenth is not only a way that we as a nation can acknowledge our history, but by doing so, it can also unite us further, as emancipation was achieved through a vast network of enslaved persons, free folks, and abolitionists. 

The time is here. The time is now.