A resolution observing Juneteenth Independence Day, June 19, 1865, the day on which slavery finally came to an end in the United States.

Mr. President, this week, specifically June 19, people all across the Nation are engaging in the oldest known observance of the ending of slavery, Juneteenth Independence Day.

It was on June 19, 1865, when African Americans in the Southwest received the news from Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, that the enslaved were free. This was 2\1/2\ years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued on January, 1, 1863, and months after the conclusion of the Civil War.

For more than 145 years, descendants of slaves have observed this anniversary of emancipation as a remembrance of one of the most tragic periods of our Nation's history. The suffering, degradation and brutality of slavery cannot be repaired, but the memory can serve to ensure that no such inhumanity is ever perpetrated again on American soil.

Today, 42 States, the District of Columbia, and several other countries, including Goree Island, Senegal, a former slave port, recognize Juneteenth Independence Day with special activities in commemoration of the emancipation of all slaves in the United States.

We also celebrate Juneteenth across the country in large measure because of the efforts of Lula Briggs Galloway, of Saginaw, MI, whose efforts to promote recognition of Juneteenth played a major role in the passage of the first resolution on Juneteenth Independence Day by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, in 1997.

Already, Congress has observed an important moment today in honoring the history of the fight for justice and equality. The unveiling of a statue depicting Frederick Douglass in Emancipation Hall, on this day, June 19, 2013, means visitors to the Capitol from now forward will be reminded of this man's immense contributions to the moral and intellectual foundations of our Nation's drive for justice. Douglass escaped from slavery and became a leading writer, orator, publisher and one of the most influential advocates for abolitionism, and equality of all people.

Today, I am very pleased that the Senate will unanimously adopt a resolution, S. Res. 175, recognizing the historical significance of Juneteenth Independence Day, which I jointly sponsored with Senator Cornyn, and is cosponsored by Senators Landrieu, Cowan, Harkin, Gillibrand, Cardin, Mark Udall, Leahy, Brown, Stabenow, Durbin, Schumer, Hagan, Murray, Pryor, Cochran, Sessions, Coons, Whitehouse, Shaheen, Kaine, Warner, Boxer, Cruz, Rubio, Risch, Mikulski, Wicker, Baldwin, Casey, Begich, Nelson, Tom Udall and Warren.

The resolution expresses support for the observance of Juneteenth Independence Day, and recognizes the faith and strength of character demonstrated by former slaves, that remains an example for all people of the United States, regardless of background or race.

All across America we also celebrate the many important achievements of former slaves and their descendants. We do so because in 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, son of former slaves, proposed such a recognition as a way of preserving the history of African Americans and recognizing the enormous contributions of a people of great strength, dignity, faith, and conviction--a people who rendered their achievements for the betterment and advancement of a nation once lacking in humanity towards them. Every February, nationwide, we celebrate African American History Month. And, every year on June 19 we celebrate ``Juneteenth Independence Day.''

Lerone Bennett, Jr., writer, scholar, lecturer, and acclaimed Executive Editor for several decades at Ebony Magazine, has reflected on the life and times of Dr. Woodson. Bennett tells us that one of the most inspiring and instructive stories in African American history is the story of Woodson's struggle and rise from the coal mines of West Virginia to the summit of academic achievement:

At 17, the young man who was called by history to reveal

Black history was an untutored coal miner. At 19, after

teaching himself the fundamentals of English and arithmetic,

he entered high school and mastered the four-year curriculum

in less than two years. At 22, after two-thirds of a year at

Berea College [in Kentucky], he returned to the coal mines

and studied Latin and Greek between trips to the mine shafts.

He then went on to the University of Chicago, where he

received his bachelor's and master's degrees, and Harvard

University, where he became the second Black to receive a

doctorate in history. The rest is history--Black history.

In keeping with the spirit and the vision of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, I would like to pay tribute to two courageous women, claimed by my home State of Michigan, who played significant roles in addressing American injustice and inequality. These are two women of different times who would change the course of history.

The contributions of Sojourner Truth, who helped lead our country out of the dark days of slavery, and Rosa Parks, whose dignified leadership sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the start of the civil rights movement, are indelibly etched in the chronicle of the history of this nation. Moreover, they are viewed with distinction and admiration throughout the world.

Sojourner Truth, though unable to read or write, was considered one of the most eloquent and noted spokespersons of her day on the inhumanity and immorality of slavery. She was a leader in the abolitionist movement, and a groundbreaking speaker on behalf of equality for women. Michigan has honored her with the dedication of the Sojourner Truth Memorial Monument, which was unveiled in Battle Creek, MI, on September 25, 1999. In April 2009, Sojourner Truth became the first African American woman to be memorialized with a bust in the U.S. Capitol. The ceremony to unveil Truth's likeness was appropriately held in Emancipation Hall at the Capitol Visitor's Center. I was pleased to cosponsor the legislation to make this fitting tribute possible. Sojourner Truth lived in Washington, DC for several years, helping slaves who had fled from the South and appearing at women's suffrage gatherings. She returned to Battle Creek in 1875, and remained there until her death in 1883. Sojourner Truth spoke from her heart about the most troubling issues of her time. A testament to Truth's convictions is that her words continue to speak to us today.

On May 4, 1999, legislation was enacted which authorized the President of the United States to award the Congressional Gold Medal to Rosa Parks. I was pleased to coauthor this tribute to Rosa Parks--the gentle warrior who decided that she would no longer tolerate the humiliation and demoralization of racial segregation on a bus. I was also pleased to be a part of the effort to direct the Architect of the Capitol to commission a statue of Rosa Parks, which was recently placed in the United States Capitol, making her the second African American woman to receive such an honor.

Her personal bravery and self-sacrifice are remembered with reverence and respect by us all. Over 55 years ago, in Montgomery, AL, the modern civil rights movement began when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus. The strength and spirit of this courageous woman captured the consciousness of not only the American people, but the entire world. The boycott which Rosa Parks began was the start of an American revolution that elevated the status of African Americans nationwide and introduced to the world a young leader who would one day have a national holiday declared in his honor, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. In addition, the overwhelming majority of my colleagues in the Senate joined me in sponsoring legislation authorizing the Congressional Gold Medal to be presented to Dr. King, posthumously, and Coretta Scott King in recognition of their contributions to the Nation. Companion legislation was led in the House by Representative John Lewis.

We have come a long way toward achieving justice and equality for all. We still, however, have work to do. In the names of Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and many others, let us rededicate ourselves to continuing the struggle of civil rights and human rights.

In closing, I would like to pay tribute to the Juneteenth directors and event coordinators throughout my State of Michigan. They have worked tirelessly in the planning of intergenerational activities in observance of Juneteenth, heading up a wide range of activities over several days in Detroit, Flint, Holland, Lansing, Saginaw, and other areas around the State.

Mr. President, 148 years ago today Union troops arrived in Galveston, TX, to take possession of the State and enforce the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation.

It had been 2 months since General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse and more than 2 years since President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, but word of the proclamation's promise was only now reaching those held in bondage in Texas.

With the reading of General Order No. 3 to the people of Galveston, the last remaining slaves in the United States were officially free.

The date, June 19, 1865, has gone down in history as ``Juneteenth.'' It is a day to celebrate the end of legalized slavery in America and to rededicate ourselves to continuing the struggle for true equality.

I can not think of a better day to welcome to the United States Capitol--at long last--a statue of Frederick Douglass.

The statue of the great abolitionist leader was welcomed in a dedication ceremony earlier today. The statue now stands, appropriately, in Emancipation Hall, the great hall of the Capitol Visitors Center.

The Frederick Douglass statue is only the fourth carved likeness of an African American to be displayed in the United States Capitol. It joins busts of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Douglass' fellow abolitionist leader, Sojourner Truth, and a statue of Rosa Parks, which was dedicated 2 months ago.

Importantly, the Douglass statue is the first statue accepted by Congress from residents of the District of Columbia for display in the United States Capitol.

A federal law gives each State the right to display in the Capitol two statues of its distinguished residents. Although District of Columbia residents pay federal income taxes and serve in our Armed Forces, they have no voting member in Congress and they had no statue in the Capitol, not one, until today.

By accepting the Frederick Douglass statue, Congress honors a great man and, I hope, moves closer to recognizing the rights of Washington, D.C. to be represented fairly in Congress.

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is Washington, D.C.'s only elected representative in either House of Congress and is a distinguished champion of freedom and equality in her own right.

She has been fighting for a dozen years for Washington, D.C.'s right to display two statues in the Capitol, the same as every State.

I was proud to include language in the fiscal 2013 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill allowing the District to display the Douglass statue in the Capitol. I hope that America's capital city will have a second statue in the Capitol soon.

I can not think of a better or more distinguished choice for the District's first statue than Frederick Douglass.

He was called ``the Lion of Anacostia,'' after the section of Washington where he lived for the last 23 years of his life.

He was a social reformer, a brilliant orator and writer, a statesman and a leader in the movement to abolish slavery in America.

Frederick Douglass knew that evil institution well. He was born into slavery as Frederick Bailey in Talbot County, MD, in 1818. Like many enslaved children at that time, he met his mother only a few times in his life. His father was likely his mother's white owner.

When Frederick Douglass was 8 years old, he was sent to live with his owner's relative in Baltimore. She taught him the first letters of the alphabet but quit when she learned that it was illegal to teach a slave to read.

When he was 15, he was returned to his owner's farm, where he risked his life to educate other slaves.

At the age of 20, Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery. Disguising himself as a sailor, he boarded a train from Baltimore to New York City.

It was in New York that he changed his name to Douglass, to avoid being captured.

In the north, Douglass began speaking publicly about the horrors of slavery. He carried his message throughout the country and to other nations.

He published a book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, describing his life as a slave and his efforts to gain his freedom. The book helped transform the debate over slavery--but it also forced Douglass to flee to Europe to avoid being recaptured under the Fugitive Slave Act.

He continued to speak about equal rights for all people in England, Scotland and Ireland. Supporters in Great Britain were so deeply moved that they purchased Douglass' freedom, allowing

him to return to the U.S. after more than 2 years abroad.

Upon returning, he settled in Rochester, NY, and began publishing The North Star, an uncompromising and highly regarded abolitionist newspaper.

When the Civil War broke out, Douglass recruited African American soldiers to fight for the Union Army.

His passionate writing and speeches are widely credited with influencing President Lincoln's evolving aims for the war--from simply preserving the Union to ending slavery in America for all time.

After the war, Frederick Douglass moved to Washington, D.C. He was appointed by Presidents to posts as U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia, Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, U.S. Minister to Haiti and Charge d'Affaires to the Dominican Republic.

Frederick Douglass was a firm believer in the equality of all people, regardless of race or gender, whether Native American or immigrant.

He famously said: ``I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.'' He also fought for voting rights and home rule for residents of the District of Columbia

I hope that the new statue will encourage Members of Congress to finish Frederick Douglass' fight for District residents to have self- government and Congressional representation.

I will end with a story of the last time Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln saw each other.

It was Inauguration Day 1865. After hearing President Lincoln deliver his Second Inaugural Address at the Capitol, Frederick Douglass went to the White House for a reception in the President's honor.

Police officers refused him entry at first. But President Lincoln got word that Douglass was at the door and instructed that he should be welcomed in.

When President Lincoln saw Frederick Douglass, his face lit up and he said in a booming voice for all to hear: ``Here comes my friend Douglass.''

As we welcome the statue of this revered American to the United States Capitol, we say: ``Here comes our friend Douglass.'' We are very glad you are finally here.

Mr. President, I rise today as an original co-sponsor of Senator Levin's resolution celebrating the 148th anniversary of Juneteenth, the oldest commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, TX, to inform the slaves that they were free. Although the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect on January 1, 1863, nearly 2\1/2\ years passed before the message reached slaves in Texas and the Union troops enforced the President's order. Nearly 90 years after America's Independence Day, Africans in America finally obtained their independence from slavery. Juneteenth is a day when all Americans can celebrate Black Americans' freedom and heritage.

The House of Representatives and Senate passed resolutions by voice vote in 2008 and 2009, respectively, apologizing for the injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow laws. The resolutions acknowledged that African-Americans continue to suffer from the complex interplay between slavery and Jim Crow long after both systems were formally abolished. This suffering is both tangible and intangible, including the loss of human dignity, the frustration of careers and professional lives, and the long-term loss of income and opportunity.

On this day, it is fitting to remember our Nation's painful history. Millions of Africans were torn from their homeland and brought to the Americas as chattel. While it is unknown how many died during the Middle Passage, it is estimated that 645,000 arrived in the United States. My own State of Maryland had slaves. In 1790, more than 100,000 slaves, which would have been about one-third of the State's total population, lived in Maryland. Seventy years later, the 1860 Census indicated that there were more than 4 million slaves nationwide.

Despite Maryland's history of slavery, many Marylanders led the fight for abolition. The Underground Railroad was a secret network that helped enslaved men, women, and children escape to freedom. Its route through Maryland took passengers by boat up the Chesapeake Bay. Ships departed from the many towns located directly on the Bay and from cities on rivers that flowed into the bay, including Baltimore. Many ships' pilots risked their own lives and livelihoods by hiding passengers' and helped them on their way.

Another route led slaves by land up along the Eastern Shore of Maryland and into Delaware, where they could cross into Pennsylvania and go north to freedom in Massachusetts, New York, and Canada. This was the route used by Harriet Ross Tubman, a native of Dorchester County, MD. Tubman not only guided herself and her family to freedom through the Underground Railroad, she also made more than 19 trips to the South to lead more than 300 slaves to freedom. She never lost a ``passenger'' along the route.

Harriet Tubman's legacy lives on. She and the other brave men and women who manned the Underground Railroad are remembered as enduring symbols of America's commitment to equality, justice, and freedom. They fought for the ideals that this country was founded upon despite the fact that their conditions were far from ideal. I have introduced the S. 247, the Harriet Tubman National Historical Parks Act, to create a national park in Maryland that would extend north to New York, along the path Tubman traveled to freedom. This legislation, when enacted, will stand as a monument to all that Harriet Tubman risked her life for. The tenacity with which she fought not only for her freedom but for the freedom of her brothers and sisters is certainly something we should remember and commemorate.

Juneteenth marked both the end of slavery in the United States and the beginning of a long and arduous civil rights movement. In the years since the first Juneteenth, our Nation has no doubt made considerable progress, but many challenges remain. Discrimination, disparities, and racially motivated hate persist. We must confront these issues. We cannot ignore the disparities in health care that result in higher premature birth rates and reduced life expectancy for minority populations. We cannot ignore discriminatory sentencing in our courts or discriminatory lending practices by financial institutions. Racially motivated police brutality and hate crimes cannot stand. We must continue to pursue justice in each of these areas, and for all Americans.

We owe it to the legacy of our predecessors in the battle for racial equality to keep fighting injustice until the declaration that ``all men are created equal"' rings true. We cannot be complacent. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ``Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'' We must continue to strive toward elimination of inequality so we can truly honor the spirit of Juneteenth.

Mr. President, on June 19, 1865--2 years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, TX, with news that the Civil War had finally ended and the African Americans were free from slavery. This day marked the first time news of the emancipation had reached the southern-most tip of the old confederacy.

One hundred and forty-eight years later, in Colorado and across the country, we remember the importance of providing liberty and justice for all and how embracing tolerance has helped our country to move away from the terrible legacy of slavery.

The impact of Juneteenth in 1865 has certainly reached beyond Galveston, TX. Across Colorado and the Nation, communities celebrate Juneteenth by recognizing the important progress our country has made towards equality and acknowledging how far we still have to go. We do this by remembering the heritage and struggles of African Americans and commemorating their many achievements and contributions to our country. In my home State of Colorado, for example, Pueblo celebrates its 33rd annual Juneteenth celebration by honoring active servicemembers and military veterans, and Denver hosts the Juneteenth Music Festival one of the largest celebrations of Juneteenth in the country.

Celebrating this holiday is an important reminder of how our differences make us stronger. Juneteenth brings people together to reflect on our past

and look forward to our future where we will all finally achieve the dream Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., laid out almost 50 years ago--of being judged not by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 170, and the Senate proceed to its consideration.

I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. President, we whipped right through this, but John Lewis in my lifetime is one of the finest, most patriotic, courageous people I have ever known. I have so much admiration for this man. I have told him this personally. I want the Record to be spread with this. He is a person who as a very young man wanted to change the world in his own way, and in his own way he has helped change the world. I so admire him.