Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19, honors the 1865 announcement in Galveston (TX) that slavery was over because the Confederacy had lost the Civil War. Ignorance and greed, however, continued the practice in many Southern states. In 1903, 40 years after the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery in Texas, a Black man sought news about whether slavery had ended. Angry about the new freedom, Texans murdered as many as 2,500 Blacks between 1865 and 1868. Millions of young people, however, won’t learn about this history because of state laws blocking history like this, replaced with revisionist history.
In 2024, at least 30 states officially celebrated the elimination of slavery in the U.S. on Juneteenth, declared a federal holiday in 2021. Ten other states, however, celebrate slavers on a state-designated Confederacy Day, and six states do not recognize Juneteenth: Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina, and North Carolina. In Mississippi and Alabama, three Confederate holidays pay state employees for a day off: Confederate Memorial Day; the birthday of Jefferson Davis, the leader of the Confederacy; and Robert E Lee Day, the leader of the Confederate army. In both states, Robert E Lee Day is on Martin Luther King Jr Day, a federal holiday.
Movement toward Democratic Rights:
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore pardoned 175,000 cannabis convictions, forgiving decades of low-level possession charges, some of the pardons for deceased people. No one was released from incarceration because sentences are short, but criminal records are used to deny housing, employment, and education even after sentences are served. In recent years, nine other states and multiple cities pardoned hundreds of thousands of cannabis convictions, and President Joe Biden reprieved 6,500 federal people. Blacks are over three times more likely than white people to be arrested for possession, and 70 percent of Maryland’s male incarcerated population is Black, more than double the 33 percent population. As the only state in the region among 24 states to legalize recreational cannabis, Maryland permits it for adults 21 and older.
New Yorkers 21 and over may grow up to six cannabis plants per person in their home with a maximum of 12 plants per household and possess five pounds of trimmed weed “and the equivalent weight in concentrates” in their home or on their property. The product is not for sale, trade, etc., and people are limited to three ounces away from the home.
Biden has issued an immigration order keeping some families together called “Parole in Place,” a policy offering legal status to about 500,000 adults undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens and 50,000 children under 21 if they have lived in the U.S. for at least ten years and have no criminal record. The policy grants work permits and relief from deportation giving an opportunity to achieve legal permanent residency and future citizenship, possibly after three years without being forced to leave the country for many years. “Parole in Place” already exists for immediate relatives of military members
White nationalist Stephen Miller, hateful adviser to Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) who created every vicious anti-immigrant communication while DDT was in the White House and other anti-human statements, Xed:
“Big news: Biden to announce an unconstitutional executive amnesty for illegal aliens during a border invasion and in the aftermath of multiple gruesome raped and murders of Americans at the hands of Biden-freed illegals. This is an attack on democracy.”
The policy is not an amnesty because migrants must follow the same path to residency, requiring several years with a criminal check Already in the U.S. for at least ten years, the migrants have no influence on the “border influx.” Others in the supposed “pro-family” GOP have said Biden wants these migrants to vote for him, but they cannot legally do so—like Republicans who forged signatures for deceased relatives in the 2020 election. The policy simply makes them more able to be contributing residents.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued its first order requiring bargaining after the Supreme Court justices’ handing Starbucks a win in permitting the firing of union organizers. The NLRB directive to owners of the Red Rock Casino and two others in Las Vegas to recognize and bargain with a union is also the first since the agency created a path for union organizing even after losing elections. According to an NLRB order, employers breaking the law during an organizing campaign must recognize the union regardless of the election’s outcome. Monday’s decision described NP Red Rock’s behavior as “egregious and pervasive unlawful conduct” tainting a 2019 election and warranting a bargaining order after workers voted 627-534 against joining a union. Red Rock illegally promised benefits if workers rejected the union and threatened to withhold them if the union won the election. Two days before the election, the company also gave away over 500 steaks branded with “Vote No.”
After Amazon refused to negotiate a contract or recognize the new union at a Staten Island warehouse two years ago, the small independent group joined the International Brotherhood of Teamsters with 1.3 million members. Last year, the Teamsters negotiated an historic contract for UPS workers and joined Amazon workers at a Kentucky air hub, the nerve center of the company’s fast shipping. In Alabama, Amazon workers are waiting a legal hearing about a third chance at a union election.
The 27,000 school district employees will now be represented by the Fairfax Education Unions, an alliance of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA). Virginia is an anti-union “right-to-work” state prohibiting union security agreements.
A state appeals court returned New York’s proposed “equal rights” constitutional amendment to the November election; it bars discrimination based on “gender identity” and “pregnancy outcomes.” The lower court removed the ballot initiative with the justification that the proposal was passed without waiting for a legal memo from the state AG, but the initiative was reinstated because the plaintiffs missed the deadline for their challenge. The state constitution bans discrimination based on race, color, creed or religion, and the proposed amendment adds ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive health care and autonomy.
New York already has a 24-week deadline for abortions, but the amendment would ban discrimination for having one. With a July 5 deadline, at least five states may have enough signatures for ballot initiatives that could give longer timelines for abortions to add to the existing four states with that proposal already on the ballot. Seven states—California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, and Vermont—added abortion rights since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, but 14 states ban abortions at all states of pregnancy. Both Wisconsin and Iowa ended their sessions without passing anti-abortion constitutional amendments, and others failed in Louisiana, Maine, and Minnesota legislatures. Colorado, Florida, Maryland, and South Dakota have loosened abortion deadline measures on the fall election. Other possibilities, despite death threats and other harassment of signature gatherers, could be on the ballots of Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, and Nevada.
Legislators and the Supreme Court hate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and affirmative action, but 61 percent approve of education about these issues. The number moved to 69 percent when provided a more detailed explanation. Almost half the Republicans approve after an explanation.
Concerned about the fascist elements of Project 2025, formed by the Heritage Foundation assisted by other ultra-conservative groups and individuals for DDT to follow if he returns to the White House, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) announced the Stop Project 2025 Task Force. Plans include countering Project 2025’s aim to grant DDT extensive powers and erode democratic institutions and freedoms.
A resolution filed by Senate Democrats apologizes for actions discriminating against LGBTQ government workers as far back as 1949. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) stated that it reaffirms a commitment “to righting our past wrongs” and advancing LGBTQ equality nationwide:
“LGBT civil servants, foreign service officers and service members have made countless sacrifices and contributions to our country and national security. Despite this, our government has subjected them to decades of harassment, invasive investigations and wrongful termination because of who they are or who they love.”
Federal government legislation, congressional hearings, reports, and public statements have been against LGBTQ military service members, foreign service members and civilian employees, most notably during the “Lavender Scare” of the late 1950s and 60s, when then-Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) linked homosexuality to communism. In 2017, former Secretary of State John Kerry issued a formal apology to LGBTQ State Department employees for past discrimination based on sexual orientation, including during the “Lavendar Scare.”
Kaine’s resolution explicitly mentions the more than 100,000 LGBTQ service members who historians estimate were forced out of the U.S. military because of their sexual orientation or gender identity between WWII and 2011. It also references the “countless others” who were “forced to hide their identities and live in fear while serving.” A provision in the 1994 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) banned open military service by LGBTQ people from serving openly in the military and not repealed until 2011. The military recognizes the discrimination of this “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and others, LGBTQ veterans with dishonorable discharges must still individually prove that discrimination occurred in order to have their dishonorable discharge reversed.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), who became the first openly LGBTQ person elected to the Senate in 2012, said:
“Anyone who serves our country, whether they are in uniform or a civil servant, deserves to be treated with respect, fairness, and dignity, regardless of who they are or who they love.”
Nel's New Day 