Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke Beto O'RourkeJimmy Carter says his son smoked pot with Willie Nelson on White House roof O'Rourke endorses Kennedy for Senate: 'A champion for the values we're most proud of' 2020 Democrats do convention Zoom call MORE wrote a Juneteenth op-ed saying that Americans are "still on the march for justice."

The former Texas congressman cited disparities in wealth, incarceration rates and patient death rates as racial inequalities that still exist today in the Wednesday USA Today piece.

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"The legacy not only of slavery but also of suppression and Jim Crow lives on in every single facet of our society," O'Rourke wrote.

O'Rourke also promoted his voting rights plan, in which he says he would pass legislation to allow people without identification to vote with a sworn written statement of identity, expand early voting and encourage Congress to establish Election Day as a national holiday.

"That’s how we can bring all of us into this democracy. From the marchers at Selma on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, to the women marching for their rights, the kids marching for their lives, and the marchers I’ve met on the picket lines calling for a living wage — there’s an unbroken chain, across the generations, of Americans making their voices heard to demand the rights and basic justice," he wrote. "And on this Juneteenth of 2019, that march continues on."

Juneteenth commemorates the announcement of the end of slavery in Texas and is celebrated June 19.

O'Rourke is among two dozen people competing for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.