WASHINGTON- The following is a statement from Damon Hewitt, president, and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:
“Today we join the nation in commemorating Juneteenth, marking the day in 1865 when enslaved Africans in Texas learned that they were free. The beauty and irony of this important but delayed message is emblematic of the struggle for liberation we continue to face today.
Black people are free from slavery, yet telling the history of how we arrived at this point is either banned or threatened by a recent wave of state and local laws and policies allegedly designed to stop Critical Race Theory and legal attacks in the courts that threaten to prevent students from embracing and discussing their full selves and identities in the classroom or in applications for college admissions. In reality, these are bans on truth—a truth, as uncomfortable as it may be for some, that we must all face in order for this nation to grow for the promises of democracy to flourish for all of us. The struggle is now, and always has been, a struggle over self-determination. This is why we must continue to fight.
At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, on June 21, 1963, around the same time of year as Juneteenth, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law was founded, creating an entity that would become a force for justice in advancing that fight.
Formed at the request of President John F. Kennedy, we have mobilized the nation’s leading lawyers as agents for change in the Civil Rights Movement for six decades. During those 60 years, we’ve fought to ensure the promise of liberation embodied by Juneteenth extends beyond words and manifests as tangible equity in our legal system and society at large.
Today, on this Juneteenth, our organization reiterates its commitment to combating systemic racism and calls on our leaders to pass legislation to stop bans on truthful curriculum in our schools, protect voting rights, hold police accountable, and ensure that those of us who helped build this country and its prosperity can partake in the fruits of that labor.
Let us use the spirit of Juneteenth as a beacon, guiding us toward realizing our shared dreams. Together, let us continue to turn the promise of Juneteenth, that of freedom and equality, into reality.”
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About the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law – The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to mobilize the nation’s leading lawyers as agents for change in the Civil Rights Movement. Today, the Lawyers’ Committee uses legal advocacy to achieve racial justice, fighting inside and outside the courts to ensure that Black people and other people of color have the voice, opportunity, and power to make the promises of our democracy real. For more information, please visit https://link.edgepilot.com/s/0657a06b/_5fW4nyqz0C9b–31T52DQ?u=https://lawyerscommittee.org/.
