California Lawyers Association Juneteenth Statement

June 2021

The California Lawyers Association (CLA) honors our newest national holiday, Juneteenth. Last year, CLA supported an American Bar Association resolution to establish June 19 as a national holiday to commemorate the end of slavery, and CLA thanks Congress and the President for this important and critical bipartisan effort.

Juneteenth commemorates the 156th anniversary of when the Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, two years after the Confederacy had surrendered. Thereafter, all enslaved people were then free.

Persistent racial disparities exist and can be seen through the senseless killings of unarmed Black Americans—including George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Breonna Taylor, Philando Castile, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, and countless others. These horrendous incidents of racial injustice and systemic racism continue in America. CLA asks that California attorneys and all others heed Juneteenth day as one of remembrance, reflection and action in the pursuit of justice for all.