::THE SLICE REPORT WITH MONA AUSTIN

  PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGE ON JUNETEETH Melania and I send our best wishes to those celebrating Juneteenth.   On this day in 1865, Major General Gordon Granger of the Union Army arrived in Galveston, Texas, to declare the end of the Civil War and issue a long-awaited order freeing the remaining slaves in Texas.  Although President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation more than two years earlier, the freedom of most slaves depended on the advancement of the Union Army, which brought with it enforcement of the Proclamation.  In Texas, General Granger’s order was a major step in our Nation’s effort to abolish slavery forever.   This historic moment would not have been possible without the courage and sacrifice of the nearly 200,000 former enslaved and free African Americans who fought for liberty alongside more than 2 million Union servicemen.  These brave individuals fought to defend the God-given rights of tho...

buzzz worthy. . .  Rev. Ronald V. Myers is spearheading the effort to make Juneteenth an official  national holiday (Washington, DC) - Leaders of the Campaign to Establish Juneteenth as a National Day of Observance will return to the nation's capitol for the WASHINGTON JUNETEENTH National Holiday Observance , during the 150 year annivesary of Juneteenth in America. Scheduled for June 18-20, 2015, the Juneteenth Flag will certainly be flying at the nation's capitol on the "19th of June" . "We are hopeful that President Obama and the U.S. Congress will finally enact legislation to establish the '19th of June' on all calendars as America's 2nd Independence Day," states Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D., Founder and Chairman of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation (NJOF) . "We are not asking for a paid federal holiday, but a national day of observance, like Flag Day and Patriot Day ." Juneteenth , ...