SAGCD President Alan A. Robb’s 2024 Juneteenth Message

Dear Friends:

June 19, 2024, marks the 159^th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s historic announcement in Galveston, Texas that slavery had been abolished two- and one-half years earlier. Sadly, all these years later, we, as a country, still suffer from the awful ramifications of slavery. It seems that rather than progress in recognizing the sins and after-shock of slavery, we see a backlash against such recognition. Public institutions are forbidden to partake in diversity. Confederate symbols and names are being reinstituted. President Lincoln’s Republican Party of 2024 would sue to overturn the Emancipation Proclamation. It is up to us to remind younger generations of our fights, our fights for civil rights, our fight to maintain a democratic country “of the people, for the people”; to fight for our rights as honest workers. As I have said, 2024 is a critical year for us as working men and women. There are loud voices that resist civil rights progress; that do not appreciate the beauty of our diversity; that believe having a dictator on the first day in office is alright. We must speak up and repel those that want to tear down the fabric of our democracy. We celebrate Juneteenth because it allows us to appreciate our progress but reminds us as well of the lack of progress and the notion that our fights continue.  I for one do not intend to be silent. The ILA will not be silent. Please join me in celebrating our diversity, our unity, our strength. Please join me in resisting those that spout hatred. We honor our history; we must learn from it and do better.   Happy Juneteenth! Thank you for all you do. God bless America and the ILA.

Fraternally,
Alan A. Robb