COMMENT: The auto industry must prove that black lives matter

The UAW has asked members to pause work today, at 08:46am EDT for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Both date and time are significant: June 19th, or ‘Juneteenth’, is a day of observance in the US which marks the anniversary of the Union Army’s arrival in Galveston, Texas, in 1865. Major General Gordon Granger read federal papers that ordered the immediate freeing of the 250,000 slaves that remained in the state, following the end of the American Civil War.