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Republican senators are debating whether Juneteenth, a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, should replace Columbus Day on the federal government's list of official holidays. A bipartisan bill sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) to make Juneteenth a federal holiday is being held up by an internal Senate GOP squabble. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), an outspoken budget hawk, doesn't want to add another paid holiday to the calendar. Johnson says if Juneteenth is made a federal holiday, another paid federal holiday should come off the schedule. He's proposing scrapping Columbus Day but is open to...

President Donald Trump made a series of promises at a campaign event in Atlanta on Friday in a bid to woo Black voters, including establishing Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of U.S. slavery, as a federal holiday. Trump, who announced the promises less than 40 days before the November presidential election, also pledged to designate two groups as terrorist organizations: the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan and the amorphous movement known as antifa that opposes fascism. He also promised to increase access to capital in Black communities, create more jobs, support Black-owned businesses and expanding opportunity zones. Trump said he...

Juneteenth. It’s a profound holiday that was known by relatively few until now. I’ve written about it for years. It has special meaning to me for several reasons. Juneteenth (a mashup of June 19th) signified the nearly three-year delayed emancipation of 250,000 slaves in Texas who hadn’t yet received the news (even a month after the end of the civil war). It exemplified the hard-fought self-sacrifice of black and white brothers and sisters working together to end the evil of chattel slavery. It’s the anniversary date of the release of my book Not Equal: Civil Rights Gone Wrong which challenges...

One mark of a fanatic is the ability to create something negative out of something positive. One mark of a fanatic is the ability to create something negative out of something positive. That certainly marks the approach of CNN yesterday on its home page when noting that the federal government created a brand-new national holiday commemorating Juneteenth, when slaves in Texas first heard that they were freed. Adam Ford noted the fanaticism on Twitter: This is CNN's home page right now. Our corporate media wants so badly for us to hate each other. It's really sick. pic.twitter.com/yta3lWoQAF — Adam Ford...

AOC calls out ‘white men’ who voted against Juneteenth Queens Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called out her House GOP colleagues who voted against establishing “Juneteenth” as a federal holiday. “They were all men and they were all white. Like all white men. There weren’t even women. Like no diversity in it,” AOC told TMZ in an on-the-street interview on Capitol Hill. “It just goes to show that there is a lot of denialism and that also kind of ties into why they don’t want us to teach the history of racism in our school either,” she added, taking a shot at...

The declaration of Juneteenth as a federal holiday is putting the pressure on more U.S. companies to give their employees the day off, accelerating a movement that took off last year in response to the racial justice protests that swept the country.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) was met with boos while attending a Juneteenth celebration on Saturday in Milwaukee, Wisc., WDJT reported. According to WDJT, the Republican senator was heckled by crowd members while speaking to reporters. At one point during the video, a bystander can be heard saying "We don't need you out here." The resistance to Johnson comes after the lawmaker issued a statement objecting to making Juneteenth a nationally recognized holiday earlier this week. “Last year, a bill was introduced to celebrate Juneteenth by providing an additional paid holiday for 2 million federal employees at a cost of $600...

On July 4, 1776, the United States of America declared themselves free and independent states, commencing a long journey to give the world a shining example of a nation in which limited government existed solely to secure the liberty of its individual citizens. This journey took a long time to accomplish. First, a War of Independence, then an economic retooling of the nation, then a long fight to find some way to eliminate the inhuman way that one class of Americans – the slaves - were treated under the law. Some call slavery “the original sin” of the American republic....

Why are white people sending unsolicited donations to their black friends - or forking it over to total strangers? The phenomenon may have begun as satire, but like so many jokes in 2020, “mini-reparations” have become reality. With race relations in the US front and center ever since last month’s police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, some people are taking the matter of reparations for slavery into their own hands. Guilty white people sending unsolicited cash donations to their black acquaintances – or eagerly responding to calls for cash from random social media accounts purporting to be needy black...

Pineapple pizza has long been a divisive dish, but one TikToker seems to have found a way to bring together the pro-fruit topping and anti-fruit topping crowds with his recipe for watermelon pizza. Oliver Paterson shared the instructional video on the app last week, breaking down how to make pizza using a slice of grilled watermelon for the 'crust.' His clip has gone viral, with 2.5 million views and counting — but commenters are pretty united in panning the dish, calling it a 'war crime' and accusing Oliver of being 'possessed.'

An Illinois town is holding a “Juneteenth” parade and a Pride parade, but has cancelled their Independence Day parade and fireworks. Evanston, Illinois has apparently decided that only holidays celebrating our nation are a COVID risk, apparently. The town is hosting a Juneteenth celebration and parade on June 19 and a Pride parade and day of events on June 26. Following the Pride parade, they will be holding a “Pride Community Picnic” in the park.

Selling Beer and Making Whoopee: A Note on Juneteenth“The time has come in Dallas when the Juneteenth celebration has about gotten down to a contest over the question as to who will sell beer to the crowd. Unless it rises above this dirty place it should be stopped, for the celebration is a farce, a veritable nuisance which should be abated.” Dallas Morning News (July 4, 1903)I do not know who has the beer concession for our new Federal Juneteenth holiday; but have no doubt the celebration will be well supplied with “beer.” By “beer” I mean the gassy and...

Within a matter of hours of President Joe Biden signing into law the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act and, thereby, creating a new federal holiday—the first such addition to the calendar since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was added in 1983—activists returned to their now-familiar refrain: “It's great, but it's not enough.” By 10 o’clock the next morning, Jade Magnus Ogunnaike, a senior campaign director at the advocacy group Color Of Change, published an opinion column at The Root under the headline “Juneteenth Is More Than a Federal Holiday. We Need Reparations Now.” This followed a similar piece published two...

Okay I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere but in our industry. Ok just found this article that I linked to.

Earlier this month, a nine-member state reparations task force met for the first time to study the consequences of slavery and systemic racism against African Americans in California. The state committee is planning to spend the first year studying the lasting impacts of slavery, while recommending how the state should make amends in its second year.

Lest we forget - The Flag of June 19th, 1865. Thirty-five stars. Missing were: Nevada Nebraska Colorado North Dakota South Dakota Montana Washington Idaho Wyoming Utah Oklahoma New Mexico Arizona Alaska Hawaii

Juneteenth, a day that celebrates the ending of slavery in the United States is now a national holiday. The move to make it one had wide bipartisan support, passing unanimously in the Senate. Republicans, Democrats, conservatives and liberals have hailed it as a day of unity for America. CNN, however, has other ideas. The network on Friday brought in Natasha Alford, a CNN analyst, to twist the moment into supporting: The teaching in public schools of Critical Race Theory and the principles of the 1619 Project. Reparations. HR 1, the so-called For the People Act, which would largely federalize elections.Get...

The Confederate battle flag, which was crafted as a symbol of opposition to the abolishment of slavery, is just recently tired. We don’t see it much anymore. However, on the 6th, when the stormers rained on the nation’s most precious hut, waving Old Glory — the memo was received: the American flag is its replacement. President Biden, Madame Harris and members of Congress: the American flag has been hijacked as code for a specific belief. God bless those believers, they can have it. Like the Confederate, it is tattered, dated, divisive, and incorrect. It no longer represents democracy and freedom....

Biden signed legislation giving millions of federal employees Friday off to celebrate Saturday’s new federal holiday, Juneteenth. This makes 44 paid days off for the average federal employee annually, which is nearly nine full weeks of paid-time off each year. Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19 to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. The Civil War was America’s bloodiest war, with between 752,000 and 861,000 soldiers dying on the battlefield. 49 states have already recognized Juneteenth as a holiday (South Dakota is the only holdout), though only a handful give it as a paid holiday to state...

Conservative political pundit Candace Owens said she won't be celebrating the new federal holiday of Juneteenth, suggesting that the move to commemorate the end of slavery in the U.S. is just the Democrats trying to "repackage segregation." In a series of tweets posted after President Joe Biden signed the bill officially making June 19 a national holiday, Owens said she will only be celebrating Independence Day on July 4 instead of the date on which the last slaves were told they were free in 1865. Owens also suggested the holiday will train Black people to see themselves as "being separate...