CONGRESSWOMAN PLASKETT COMMEMORATES EMANCIPATION DAY AND AMERICA'S 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF INDEPENDENCE

For Immediate Release Contact: Alayah Phipps

July 2, 2026 202-813-2793

PRESS RELEASE

CONGRESSWOMAN PLASKETT COMMEMORATES EMANCIPATION DAY AND AMERICA'S 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF INDEPENDENCE

U.S. Virgin Islands - Congresswoman Stacey E. Plaskett (D-USVI) issued the following statement commemorating Virgin Islands Emancipation Day and the 250th Anniversary of American Independence:

"Two hundred and fifty years ago, this nation declared to the world that all men are created equal, that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. That declaration, signed in Philadelphia on July 3rd, 1776, drove the principal goals of the American Revolution. 72 years later, enslaved men and women of the Danish West Indies rose up for their own freedom from chattel slavery and received their own proclamation of emancipation in Frederiksted on St. Croix, on July 3, 1848.

"That emancipation did not come from the grace of an empire. It came because our ancestors demanded it. They rose up, refused the conditions of their bondage, and pressed on the gates of freedom until they were opened. The men and women who marched that day did not wait to be given their freedom, they insisted upon it. That is the legacy we inherit and the spirit we carry into every fight.

"Today, as America celebrates 250 years of independence and Virgin Islanders mark another Emancipation Day, we must recognize that these two anniversaries are inseparable. The Virgin Islands of the United States is inextricably tied to the history of this nation, from Alexander Hamilton, who spent his formative years on St. Croix studying banking and who risked

everything to throw off colonial rule, to our strategic position safeguarding the Caribbean Basin.

"In 1917, the United States purchased our islands from Denmark, not for the benefit of the people, but for the protection of the Caribbean Basin. The $25 million in gold bullion to purchase the islands was sent to Copenhagen not for the people of the island. And yet, we have fought in every American conflict, produced revolutionaries, statesmen and creators, and carried the full responsibilities of citizenship without the full benefits being extended to us.

"More than a century later, that inequity persists. My constituents pay federal taxes. They serve in the military at higher rates per capita than most states. They bleed for our flag. And yet they cannot vote for President. They have limited representation in Congress. They are told, in effect, that their consent does not count, that the words etched into the Declaration of Independence do not fully apply to them.

"On this semiquincentennial, I do not celebrate 250 years of American democracy as if it has been equally shared, but I also refuse to surrender to cynicism. The same spirit that drove our ancestors to the fort at Frederiksted is the spirit that drives me to fight on behalf of every Virgin Islander as their member of Congress. The cause of full equality for the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. It is an American issue. Colonial rule was wrong in 1776, and it remains wrong today.

"To every Virgin Islander: let Emancipation Day remind you of the courage that runs in your veins. Let the 250th anniversary of this nation remind you that the work of building a more perfect union is not finished. Our people are not a footnote to American history. We are woven into its very foundation, and we will not stop fighting until democracy means what it says.

"Blessed Emancipation Day and Happy Fourth of July."

In observance of Emancipation and Independence Day, the district offices of Congresswoman Plaskett on St. Croix and St. Thomas, as well as the Washington, D.C. office, will be closed on Friday, July 3, 2026, and Friday, July 4, 2026. All offices will reopen on Monday, July 6, 2026.

For assistance, please call 202-225-1790 (Washington, D.C.), 340-778-5900 (St. Croix), or 340-774-4408 (St. Thomas). Messages left will be responded to when the offices reopen on Monday, July 6, 2026.

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