In 2025, Juneteenth falls on Thursday, June 19. The annual commemoration is observed in recognition of June 19, 1865, the historic day in which Major General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, carrying a decree that ended the practice of slavery.

　　Though enslaved persons had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, many states didn't abide by the executive order, including Texas. It wasn't until Granger and his troops arrived in Galveston with Order No. 3, a decree releasing those that still remained enslaved, that the institution was officially abolished.

　　The declaration led to an outpouring of joyful celebrations and from them, Juneteenth was born.

　　A blend of the words “June” and “nineteenth,” Juneteenth has been a celebration of freedom for more than 150 years, but was recognized nationally in 2021, when President Joe Biden signed an order designating the observation as a federal holiday.

　　In honor of the day, we've gathered a list of inspirational Juneteenth quotes from activists, poets, political figures and other notable luminaries including James Baldwin, Shirley Chisholm, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. to post, pass along, or read in reflection.

　　However you choose to use these empowering quotes, let the words of Opal Lee — the driving force behind making Juneteenth a federal holiday — be a reminder that, “None of us are free until we’re all free.”

　　Juneteenth Quotes

　　“Let us never forget that Black history continues to define American history.” — Yvette D. Clarke

　　“We must always be a strong presence, an unrelenting force working for equality and justice until the freedom gates are fully open.” — Dorothy Height

　　“How many years has it taken people to realize that we are all brothers and sisters and human beings in the human race?” —Marsha P. Johnson

　　“Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.” — Coretta Scott King

　　“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” — Frederick Douglass

　　“If we want to get to the place where all lives matter, then we have to make sure that Black lives matter, too.” — Alicia Garza

　　“The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.” — W.E.B. DuBois

　　“Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater.” — George Washington Carver

　　“In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.” — Thurgood Marshall

　　“Me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow.” — Toni Morrison

　　“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” — James Baldwin

　　“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker

　　“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” — Shirley Chisholm

　　“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” — Desmond Tutu

　　“Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.” — James Baldwin

　　“We have simply got to make people aware that none of us are free until we’re all free.” — Opal Lee

　　“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

　　“Where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.” — Barack Obama

　　“Black liberation has never just been about Black people. It’s been about a fight for our humanity, for our dignity.” — Patrisse Cullors

　　“The pursuit of justice is all I have ever known.” — Harry Belafonte

　　“Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

　　“I got to fight on till I leave here, and I hope I leave some footprints.” — Mattie Jones

　　“I don’t measure America by its achievement, but by its potential.” — Shirley Chisholm

　　“Whether we are born here or seek refuge here, there’s a place for us all. We must remember it’s not my America or your America. It’s our America.” — Michelle Obama

　　“Let no voice but your own speak to you from the depths. Let no influence but your own raise you in time of peace and time of war.” — Marcus Garvey

　　“Sometimes we have to do the work even though we don’t yet see a glimmer on the horizon that it’s actually going to be possible.” ― Angela Davis

　　“There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.”  — Booker T. Washington

　　“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” — Ida B. Wells-Barnett

　　“Human rights are something you were born with. Human rights are your God-given rights. Human rights are the rights that are recognized by all nations of this earth.” — Malcolm X

　　“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

　　“I thrive on obstacles. If I’m told that it can’t be told, then I push harder.” — Issa Rae

　　“To the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message: Dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourself in a way that others might not see you, simply because they’ve never seen it before.” — Kamala Harris

　　“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

　　“Service it the rent that you pay for room on this earth.” — Shirley Chisholm

　　“We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

　　“Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.” — John Lewis, “Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change”

　　“A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of.” — Nelson Mandela

　　“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” ― Angela Davis

　　“We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

　　“You need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much — for we can’t take more than our pint’ll hold.” — Sojourner Truth

　　“Civility is the recognition that all people have dignity that’s inherent to their person, no matter their religion race, gender, sexuality or ability.” — Opal Tometi

　　“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” ― Angela Davis

　　“We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

　　“When we show up, act boldly, and practice the best ways to be wrong, we fail forward. No matter where we end up, we’ve grown from where we began.” — Stacey Abrams

　　“Peace is necessary. For justice, it is necessary. For hope, it is necessary, for our future.” — Harry Belafonte

　　Powerful Juneteenth Quotes

　　“To be once defeated is to find cause for an everlasting struggle to reach the top.” — Marcus Garvey

　　“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” ― Ida B. Wells

　　“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

　　“Movements don’t die because struggle doesn’t die.” — Harry Belafonte

　　“It’s freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody.” — Malcolm X

　　“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” — Nelson Mandela

　　“You cannot take your freedoms for granted. Just like generations who have come before you, you have to do your part to preserve and protect those freedoms.” — Michelle Obama

　　“No matter who you are or what you look like, how you started off, or how and who you love, America is a place where you can write your own destiny.” — Barack Obama

　　“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

　　“But if you know what life is worth / You would look for yours on Earth / And now a you see the light / You stand up for your right.” — Bob Marley, “Get Up Stand Up”

　　“Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society.” — John Lewis, “Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change”

　　“Let us not assume for one moment that our work is done, the struggle for equal justice continues.” — Fred David Gray

　　“Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won.” — John Lewis, “Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change”

　　“Remember this in the darkest moments, when the work doesn’t seem worth it, and change seems just out of reach: out of our willingness to push through comes a tremendous power.” — Stacey Abrams

　　“I knew then and I know now, when it comes to justice, there’s no easy way to get it. You can’t sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, ‘This is not right.’” — Claudette Colvin

　　“We can’t become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” — Oprah Winfrey

　　“Our strength lies in the fact that we are supported by the majority of Americans. And our motivation lies in our obligation to make sure their voices are heard and acknowledged by those who set public policy in this country.” — Faye Wattleton

　　“I just don’t know how to describe it. I just feel like it’s the beginning of something great, and I want to be a part of it.” — Opal Lee

　　“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” — Booker T. Washington

　　“When day comes we step out of the shade / Aflame and unafraid / The new dawn blooms as we free it / For there is always light / If only we're brave enough to see it / If only we're brave enough to be it.” — Amanda Gorman