Hello [firstname],

Today is Juneteenth — the day we commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. On this day in 1865, over two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, enslaved people in Galveston, Texas finally received word that the Civil War was over and they were free.

President Lincoln didn’t just snap his fingers and guarantee equality. It took decades of frustratingly slow action through the civil rights movement to make real progress. And today, we don’t need to look far to see that racism, hate, and intolerance are alive and well in our country. Black mothers and fathers still fear for their children’s lives when they go out for a jog or go to the store. Black communities are still deliberately cut out of our democracy with racist voting laws and gerrymandering. We can — and we must — do better.

Juneteenth is not an anniversary of victory — it’s a celebration of progress. And it calls on all of us to recommit ourselves to the ongoing work of building a more just, equitable society.

We still have a long way to go.

Sincerely,