Beto O'Rourke: From Juneteenth to today, Americans are still on the march for justice

[TexasTowelie]

We like to think that the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery in America. But African Americans in my home state of Texas remained in bondage following President Lincoln’s 1863 decree. It wasn’t until this day, two years later, that they could finally celebrate their freedom.

And just as it took far too long for promised rights to become realized in Texas, the same has held true in our country ever since.

Wednesday, on Juneteenth, we celebrate the heroes who devoted their lives toward the abolition of slavery. People like Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman believed that America could leave its original sin in the past by ushering in a future that would reflect our founding belief that all of us are created equal.

In the century and a half since abolition, civil rights leaders like Rep. John Lewis, Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer have helped our country come closer than we’ve ever been toward realizing that promise. But for as much progress as we’ve made, all of us ought to reflect on how much of this work is still unfinished.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/06/19/beto-orourke-juneteenth-voting-rights-act-column/1500022001/