It took two years after the Emancipation Proclamation for Black people in Texas to find out that they had been proclaimed free. Juneteenth has now, in regards to that history, been validated as a national holiday.

Presently, voting rights legislation, which is the rightful privilege of the free, now has on its doorstep Republican conservatives who are trying to concoct legislation to target and leverage upon Black people laws that would impair our right to vote and to discourage our voting in the future.

Hold the celebration for a moment because if these legislators pass their version of voter legislation, it will effectively void the strength of our citizenship by amputating Black legs and hands to ensure that we never even get to the polls to guess “How many jelly beans are there in the jar?” or “What side of the horse grows the most hair?”

These legislators are “crowing for jim” but the past does not exist for resurrection.

It exists in order that we do not recreate the very same mistakes that have retarded our past and therefore our present. This pushback will be met with equal and energetic reprisals.

These conservative Republicans have taken this country into the deep waters and have attempted to drown us in stupidity and selfishness in order to fill their coffers and control the governmental corruption that has as its catalyst the former emperor without any clothes or morals. We honestly do not need another snake oil salesman.

Juneteenth as a holiday is representative of a carrot to our people. It is a celebration of a memory of more than 100 years ago and, albeit important, it is not the 14-carat diamond ring that would wed us as Black people to the future of this country.

DR. GREGORY E. DOUGLAS

Sacramento, Calif.