SER National Salutes Juneteenth: Celebrating Freedom’s Joy!
SER NATIONAL SALUTES JUNETEENTH: CELEBRATING FREEDOM’S JOY!
Nation’s Service-Employment-Redevelopment Network Says Education, Training and Opportunity Is Vital to Ensure Freedom’s Full Promise
Irving, TX – Ignacio Salazar, President and CEO of SER NATIONAL, today issued the following statement in observance of Juneteenth, 2021, the annual event on June 19th which was created to mark the end of slavery in the United States. This is the inaugural celebration of this historic date as an official federal holiday as designated this week by President Biden.
“I am proud on behalf of SER NATIONAL, its Network of Affiliates and board of directors, our entire staff and the more than one-million people we serve every year, to rejoice with all Americans on this important date in our nation’s history. It was June 19, 1865 when union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed black people who were still being kept as slaves, they were free. President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation two-and-a-half years earlier. Yet, the quarter of a million slaves had to wait until the Confederacy surrendered and it took even longer for some slave owners to let them go.
The shackles of captivity were not loosened easily. Neither were the attitudes that had marked the slave-owning South. Slaves were not even allowed to learn how to read or write. Just imagine what they must have felt upon hearing they were finally free! We can only believe there was celebration, but also fear and uncertainty about what lay ahead in their new world as emancipated men, women and children. Indeed, it would be another 100-years before the civil rights movement truly began to deliver on freedom’s promise.
Today, SER NATIONAL joins with our black brothers and sisters across this great land in proclaiming, let freedom ring! May there be true freedom for communities of color through education, training and opportunity to learn a trade, enter a profession or start a business. Let there be true freedom with full acceptance of everyone in our society and encouraging self-esteem and confidence as people acquire the skills to compete and achieve. Yes, let us champion true freedom, without the shackles of the mind, spirit and soul. May this be the America we continue to strive for on this Juneteenth!”
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About SER Jobs for Progress National, Inc. – “Cultivating America’s Greatest Resource: People”
The SER Network of Affiliates serves over 1,000,000 people annually. SER is located throughout the country, in more than 24 states and 200 locations. The SER Network provides a variety of comprehensive programs including housing, youth services, GED classes, English language acquisition, early childhood education, older Americans training, women entrepreneurship, Science-Technology-Engineering-Math (STEM), assistance for military Veterans, operations of workforce centers nationally, plus assisting and placing thousands of qualified men and women in unsubsidized employment.