President Joe Biden signed Juneteenth into law on Thursday as a federal public holiday — but President Donald Trump had proposed doing so last year, as part of his “Platinum Plan” for black Americans.
Unlike Biden and the Democrats, who claim that America is beset by “systemic racism” that requires state intervention to achieve “equity,” Trump’s plan focused on creating opportunity for black Americans and fixing government services that fail the black community.
The “Four Pillars” of Trump’s plan were as follows:
OPPORTUNITY – By achieving historic employment levels for Black Americans, as well as increasing access to capital for new businesses, President Trump has been committed to ensuring all Black Americans can achieve the American Dream
SECURITY – By signing into law the celebrated First Step Act, President Trump has brought common sense criminal justice reform to the American people for the first time in decades, while ensuring that our streets and communities are safe for families and business owners
PROSPERITY – As the first President to provide long-term funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, this Administration continues to seek immediate and generational advancement for Black Americans
FAIRNESS – As demonstrated through his actions to initiate investment into Opportunity Zones, as well as address health disparities, wage gaps and necessary education reforms, President Trump works every day to advance a fair and just America for the Black Community
Trump made concrete promises, including a pledge to devote $500 billion in new investment in black communities and school choice to free black children from failing public schools. He also pledged symbolic achievements like Juneteenth.
The plan promised to make Juneteenth “a National Holiday” marking the emancipation of slaves in the Civil War.
Though embraced recently as a left-wing cause, Juneteenth has long been a regional holiday with patriotic themes. The official flag of Juneteenth, created in 1997 by Ben Haith, the founder of the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation (NJCF), alludes to the red, white, and blue of the American flag, as well as the Lone Star of the Texas state flag.
Trump worked with rapper Ice Cube on the plan, who said Biden and the Democrats had pushed him off until after the election.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new novel, Joubert Park, tells the story of a Jewish family in South Africa at the dawn of the apartheid era. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, recounts the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.