Republican
presidential candidate Sen.
Tim Scott
(R-SC) is honoring
Juneteenth
by urging people to focus less on the sins of the past and more on the nation’s future and progress.

“On June 19, 1865, the last of the slaves were freed in America,” Scott
tweeted
on Monday. “We honor Juneteenth not to dwell on our original sin as a nation, but to showcase just how far we’ve come.”

“We can’t forget the lessons of our past, but we must always continue to strive towards a more perfect union,” he continued.

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President
Joe Biden
signed legislation in 2021 marking Juneteenth as the nation’s newest federal holiday after global protests over George Floyd increased public calls to recognize the holiday. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3, which informed enslaved Americans in Galveston, Texas, that they were free under President
Abraham Lincoln
‘s Emancipation Proclamation.

Scott is the sole black Republican in the Senate. He was appointed to the position in 2012 by then-South Carolina Gov.
Nikki Haley
, now a 2024 rival, and in 2014, he became the first black senator elected from the South since Reconstruction when he defeated Democrat Joyce Dickerson to finish out former Sen. Jim DeMint’s term.

As a 2024 presidential candidate, Scott has dealt with attacks over race as a black Republican. In one instance, he got into spats with some of the hosts of The View
over systemic racism
. In recent days, he has pushed back on criticism from former President
Barack Obama
, the nation’s first black president, over race.

Obama criticized GOP candidates of color, Scott and Haley, for ignoring racism and inequality in the United States and argued that voters should be “skeptical” of their remarks.

“There may come a time where there’s somebody in the Republican Party that is more serious about actually addressing some of the deep inequality that still exists in our society that tracks race and is a consequence of our racial history,” Obama said on his former aide David Axelrod’s CNN podcast. “And if that happens, I think that would be fantastic. I haven’t yet seen it.”

During a Fox News Sunday appearance on Sunday, Scott struck back.

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“There is no higher compliment than to be attacked by President Obama,” Scott said. He also claimed that the truth of his life “disproves lies of the radical Left.”

“Whenever the Democrats feel attacked, they drag out the former president and have him make some negative comments about someone running, hoping that their numbers go down,” Scott added.

Scott regularly touts his achievements and uphill climb from poverty as proof that “America is the land of opportunity.”