ILA Joins Nation Recognizing Federal Holiday June Nineteenth, Commemorating The Emancipation of Enslaved African Americans
NORTH BERGEN, NJ – (June 18, 2022) The International Longshoremen’s Association joins the nation in celebrating Juneteenth – recognizing the announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, declaring freedom for enslaved people in Texas.
“We join in celebrating freedom, and also use Juneteenth to acknowledge the evils of slavery and to recommit ourselves to achieving the noble goal that all man and women are created equal,” said ILA President Harold J. Daggett. “This special day was finally made a National Holiday by President Joe Biden in 2021, but it’s been a day rightly celebrated by African Americans for over 150 years,”
History notes that it was two years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, that Union Soldiers brought the news to Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, that slavery had been abolished.
“To the thousands of African-American ILA members and their families, we collectively join in the happiness of Juneteenth’s Celebration of Freedom,” said President Daggett, “and we applaud the efforts of so many who kept the significance of this day alive and pushed for all Americans to remember and reflect this historic day as a National Federal Holiday.”