MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a proclamation Friday recognizing Juneteenth.
It should be a state holiday, but a proclamation will have to do.
Why wouldn't we all want to celebrate a day which shows that despite all its faults, this country does make progress, even if it takes way too long?
And boy, did it take a long time after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862.
Slaves in Galveston, Texas, waited the longest - two and a half years. On June 19th, 1865, they were finally told they were free.
So good for the governor for signing his own proclamation. But it's hard to ignore that just a week ago, Republican state lawmakers voted to keep in place a day commemorating Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest. And a bust of him is still displayed prominently in the state capitol.
Maybe someday, if anything, Juneteenth shows us doing what's right can take way too long.