ST. PAUL, Mn. — Minnesota's Black Lives Matter chapter took to the state Capitol on Friday to mark Juneteenth with a demand for reparations and real police reform in a continued push for racial justice following the death of George Floyd.

Juneteenth, the traditional commemoration date of the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, has taken on new resonance this year. There have been protests around the U.S. and beyond stemming from Floyd's death after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers.

• An appeal from the Universal African Peoples Organization / Green Party of St. Louis

ST LOUIS – Statues are coming down and street names are changing. This means that it as important to say what we foresee for the future as it is to dismantle the old.

University City offers a unique opportunity to make "Black Lives Matter." In 2008, policeman Mike King was murdered on Leland Ave. When the police asked that a street be named after him, no one objected. The City Hall of University City is now at the corner of Delmar Blvd. and Sgt. Mike King Dr. We ask this question: If it is good to name a street after a policeman killed by a civilian, would it not be just to name a street after a civilian killed by a policeman?

The Green Party National Black Caucus honors the legacy and collective power of the community and has been building up to today's celebration of Juneteenth (June 19).

Juneteenth recognizes the time when freed slaves in Texas were finally aware of their freedom and the end of the “Civil War”. That day came nearly two and one half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

• An Illusive Freedom

• Latest news from the Green Party of Santa Clara County

It was 155 years ago on June 19, 1865, that an "end to slavery" was declared in Texas. Juneteenth celebrates this historic event, but are Black people really free in the 21st century? The disenfranchisement, systematic racism and oppression of Black and Brown communities across our country are still very present.

• George Floyd's murder is not an aberration. Ahmaud Arbery's murder is not an aberration. Breonna Taylor's murder is not an aberration. Tony McDade's murder is not an aberration

• By Alan Smith, Co-chair, Green Party of Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA – For the past four months we have stopped what we were doing. We have taken drastic, life altering, paradigm shifting changes in order to deal with a global pandemic. The same energy is needed now in dealing with a 400 year old pandemic called white supremacy. It's the brutal treatment by white enslavers on ships sailing across the Atlantic, and the bombing of dark skinned peoples by a Black president with drones flying high in the sky. It's 17 year old Antwon Rose, Jr, killed by a white police officer in Pittsburgh and a black neighborhood in Philadelphia bombed by a Black mayor. White supremacy is a world-wide disease characterized by the dehumanization and devaluation of Black life.

• Statement from the Indiana Green Party Black Caucus

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Black Caucus stands in solidarity with every community that has experienced recent police murders, especially in the past 30 days, and releases the following statement:

As Black and Brown people are being brutally beaten or murdered with the perpetrators getting free passes and paid vacations, the Indiana Black Caucus calls for an end to police brutality and for a review of the laws, procedures and policies that impact community policing.

New York – The Green Parties of Brooklyn, the Bronx, and New York counties strongly condemn the violence perpetrated by the New York Police Department (NYPD) during the past week of protests in the five boroughs of New York City, as protesters voiced their outrage over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Party officials denounced Governor Andrew Cuomo’s call for more police and a curfew, and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s refusal to rein in the heavy-handed tactics of the NYPD.

ALBANY, NY — Green Party of New York (GPNY) leaders today echoed the calls by Black Lives Matter and civil rights activist groups across the nation protesting the murder of George Floyd and other black Americans, and called for the immediate defunding of police departments across the state. The Greens support redirecting the funds towards community needs and social services.

The Greens support the effort to reduce the upcoming NYC budget for police by at least $1 billion annually.

• Black Lives Matter ... End Police Brutality

SAN FRANCISCO – The Green Party of California stands in solidarity with the Black and Brown community and condemns the brutal murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers on May 25th. We join the Movement for Black Lives in calling for the arrest and prosecution of all police officers involved in George Floyd's murder, the end to police brutality and to the global racialized capitalist system.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – The Indiana Green Party (INGP) is outraged by the murder of George Floyd. We all heard George Floyd say he could not breathe. We all heard the pleas from bystanders to halt the execution of George Floyd. We all watched George Floyd lose his life as a person who is supposed to protect him kneeled on his neck until he died. With sicking sadness and outrage at the brutal and mindless murder of yet another black American at the hands of the very people we pay to serve and protect the public, the Indiana Green Party condemns the ongoing police brutality and stands in solidarity with protesters across the country.