Amata Celebrates Juneteenth’s Message of Freedom

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata is highlighting the national Juneteenth holiday, created through the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, signed into law in 2021. Juneteenth recognizes the historic events of June 19, 1865. It was on that day that delayed news of freedom reached the last known place openly practicing slavery in the U.S., though President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation two-and-a-half years earlier on New Year’s Day, 1863.

“All of us share in celebrating an enduring message of freedom,” said Congresswoman Amata. “We celebrate on Juneteenth with our African American countrymen and women and are reminded again of the great blessings of freedom. Juneteenth is a guidepost in our national history. The United States was founded on the ideals of liberty, but generations passed before these values were victorious. As stated in the Declaration of Independence, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.’ We are thankful to stand together to continue building on these lasting values, as part of a great nation dedicated to the cause of freedom.”

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