71st OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2001 Regular Session
 
NOTE:  Matter within  { +  braces and plus signs + } in an
amended section is new. Matter within  { -  braces and minus
signs - } is existing law to be omitted. New sections are within
 { +  braces and plus signs + } .
 
 LC 3285
 
                   Senate Joint Resolution 31
 
Sponsored by Senator GORDLY
 
 
                             SUMMARY
 
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the
measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to
consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor's
brief statement of the essential features of the measure as
introduced.
 
  Proclaims Juneteenth, June 19th of each year, to be day for
celebration statewide of dignity and freedom of all citizens.
 
                        JOINT RESOLUTION
  Whereas President Abraham Lincoln signed an executive order
known as the Emancipation Proclamation that granted freedom to
slaves in the states of the Confederacy on January 1, 1863; and
  Whereas slave owners in the Confederate states continued to
enslave people in defiance of the Emancipation Proclamation; and
  Whereas, after the Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, the Union
army was dispatched to the Confederate states to restore order
and to ensure that the Emancipation Proclamation was enforced;
and
  Whereas, when Union Major General Gordon Granger read General
Order Number 3 in the Gulf Coast town of Galveston, Texas, on
June 19, 1865, containing those most important words, 'all slaves
are free,' impromptu celebrations erupted across the state as the
long-delayed news spread; and
  Whereas June 19th is the oldest and most widely known
celebration of African-American emancipation and a time for
revival meetings, family reunions and celebrations of freedom,
including even pilgrimages by slaves and descendants of slaves to
Galveston; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of
  Oregon:
  That we, the members of the Seventy-first Legislative Assembly,
do hereby declare Juneteenth, June 19th of each year, to be a day
for celebration statewide of the dignity and freedom of all
citizens.
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