Celebrating Juneteenth and Our 60th Anniversary: The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Beneath Legislation Carries on the Struggle for Racial Justice

WASHINGTON- The following is a statement from Damon Hewitt, president, and govt director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Below Law:

“Today we sign up for the country in commemorating Juneteenth, marking the day in 1865 when enslaved Africans in Texas figured out that they ended up free of charge. The magnificence and irony of this essential but delayed message is emblematic of the wrestle for liberation we keep on to facial area currently. 

Black folks are free of charge from slavery, still telling the heritage of how we arrived at this level is either banned or threatened by a new wave of point out and neighborhood guidelines and guidelines allegedly intended to quit Essential Race Idea and legal assaults in the courts that threaten to protect against learners from embracing and speaking about their total selves and identities in the classroom or in apps for college or university admissions. In truth, these are bans on truth—a real truth, as awkward as it might be for some, that we ought to all facial area in get for this country to develop for the claims of democracy to flourish for all of us. The wrestle is now, and usually has been, a wrestle over self-determination. This is why we need to continue on to battle.

At the top of the Civil Rights Movement, on June 21, 1963, close to the exact same time of calendar year as Juneteenth, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law was established, producing an entity that would develop into a drive for justice in advancing that combat. 

Formed at the ask for of President John F. Kennedy, we have mobilized the nation’s primary lawyers as brokers for modify in the Civil Rights Motion for six decades. Through these 60 several years, we have fought to be certain the assure of liberation embodied by Juneteenth extends over and above phrases and manifests as tangible equity in our legal method and society at significant. 

Today, on this Juneteenth, our firm reiterates its motivation to combating systemic racism and calls on our leaders to go legislation to quit bans on truthful curriculum in our educational facilities, protect voting rights, keep police accountable, and guarantee that those of us who served develop this region and its prosperity can partake in the fruits of that labor. 

Enable us use the spirit of Juneteenth as a beacon, guiding us toward knowing our shared goals. Alongside one another, allow us continue to transform the assure of Juneteenth, that of independence and equality, into actuality.”

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About the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Legal rights Underneath Legislation – The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Legal rights Beneath Law is a nonpartisan, nonprofit firm, shaped in 1963 at the ask for of President John F. Kennedy to mobilize the nation’s top legal professionals as agents for transform in the Civil Legal rights Motion. Today, the Lawyers’ Committee takes advantage of lawful advocacy to achieve racial justice, fighting inside and exterior the courts to make sure that Black people today and other men and women of shade have the voice, opportunity, and power to make the promises of our democracy actual. For much more facts, you should stop by https://link.edgepilot.com/s/0657a06b/_5fW4nyqz0C9b–31T52DQ?u=https://lawyerscommittee.org/.