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Watch Bill De Blasio & Civil Rights Activists Speak at NAN’s Juneteenth Zoom Conference

Jul 06, 2020

(New York, NY) — In 2020, NAN staff celebrated Juneteenth — the holiday celebrating the day in 1865 that all enslaved black people learned they had been freed from bondage — by holding a Zoom Conference and speaking with activists and politicians across the country, including the NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio.

De Blasio announced that the New York City will officially observe Juneteenth as a city and school holiday starting next year.

On the subject of Juneteeth, De Blasio remarks “The extraordinary underlying tension of Juneteenth, that was the day that people were told that they were emancipated — and yet in truth they were not. A day where people were told that the law would favor you and respect you and now — a hundred and fifty years since we have all been trying to make that law true, and it’s still not true enough.”

Watch full the recording below.