title
PROPOSED RESOLUTION
COOK COUNTY JUNETEENTH AFRICAN AMERICAN VETERAN RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Congress designating June 19, 2020, as "Juneteenth Independence Day" in recognition of June 19, 1865, the date on which news of the end of slavery reached the slaves in the Southwestern States; and
WHEREAS, news of the end of slavery did not reach the frontier areas of the United States, in particular the State of Texas and the other Southwestern States, until months after the conclusion of the Civil War, more than two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863; and
WHEREAS, on June 19, 1865, African American Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War had ended and the enslaved were free; and
WHEREAS, there has been no war fought by or within the United States in which Blacks did not participate, including the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the War of 1812, the Spanish American War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom; and
WHEREAS, the County of Cook has always honored the immeasurable wartime and peacetime contributions and sacrifice of the men and women of the United States Armed Forces; and
WHEREAS, the 8th Illinois Infantry, one of the first all-black units fought under the French. During WWI roughly 27,041 served in the 33rd Division, (according to the Adjutant General's journal) and had 738 killed in action and 5,871 were wounded. The 33rd Division is credited with 9 medals of honor; and
WHEREAS, the Black heroes and heroines of World War II and the Korean War, such as Private Sarah Keys and Women's Army Corps (WAC) officer Dovey Roundtree, won significant victories against discrimination in interstate transportation in landmark civil rights cases; and
WHEREAS, in 1948, President Harry Truman desegregated the U.S. armed forces by executiv...
Click here for full text