ABC Supports Making Juneteenth a Federal Holiday

As a Texas-based international organization, we at the American Botanical Council have long known about the significance of this day, Juneteenth, the day on June 19, 1865 that news of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (issued almost two-and-a-half years earlier in January 1863) reached Galveston, Texas. The news finally emancipated slaves who were still toiling under severe hardships in Texas. ABC supports making this important day a new national holiday as well as all appropriate efforts to ensure full access to all the freedoms and Constitutional rights for all Americans. 

From all of us at the American Botanical Council