President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris offered a rallying cry to Black voters during a Juneteenth celebration at the White House, listing their administration’s achievements and urging supporters to fight efforts to roll back those gains.
“The past few years our freedoms have been put at risk by racism that’s still too powerful for us,” said Biden following a concert on the South Lawn. “Choose love over hate, union over disunion, progress over retreat. Choose to remember history, not erase it, to read books not ban them.”
Harris, the first Black and female vice president, took veiled swipes at tougher voting restrictions enacted following the 2020 presidential election as well as efforts to restrict the teaching of critical race theory.
“As we celebrate a holiday dedicated to teaching and honoring America’s full history, extremists across our country attempt to ban books and erase our past. And on this point, let us be very clear: Black history is American history,” Harris said.
Though Biden and Harris didn’t mention any names, Republicans have attacked critical race theory as divisive, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a 2024 presidential candidate. DeSantis has drawn national attention for moves to restrict the teaching of critical race theory in high school advanced placement courses.
Biden has credited Black voters with helping him win the White House in 2020 with exit polls showing that he carried 87% of the vote. But Black voters and civil rights groups have also expressed frustration with the administration’s progress on many key issues, including voting rights, police reform and gun violence, making it crucial for Biden and Harris to bolster their outreach in their 2024 reelection bid.
Harris highlighted many of the administration’s efforts on Tuesday, citing measures to cap insulin prices, provide more financing for historically Black colleges and universities, and the nomination of Black judges to the federal judiciary, including Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Harris said the administration would “continue to fight for student debt relief,” as it awaits a Supreme Court ruling that could strike down their plan and discussed the importance of passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
Voting rights are “under assault” across the nation, she added.
Biden signed legislation to designate Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021.
Biden on Tuesday said the creation of Juneteenth as a holiday was not symbolic, but a “statement of fact, to acknowledge the original sin of slavery.”
“Our entire administration is convening a charge forward to redeem the soul of America,” he said. “Juneteenth as a federal holiday is meant to breathe new life into the very essence of America and to make sure all Americans know the power of this day and the progress we can make as a country.”
The holiday, which is celebrated on June 19, marks the anniversary of the Union Army arriving in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 and announcing that all enslaved African Americans in the state were free. Juneteenth has been a celebration of Black history for years but gained larger prominence after the protests in 2020 against racial injustice.
The New York Stock Exchange and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association began observing Juneteenth as a market holiday in 2022.
