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Highlights:
- US will commemorate Juneteenth as a Federal holiday for the first time on June 20, Monday.
- Juneteenth is observed to celebrate the emancipation of the enslaved African Americans.
- The Juneteenth act was passed by President Joe Biden after 100% support from the Senate in 2021.
The US on Monday will observe its inaugural federal holiday for Juneteenth, which fell on Sunday. President Joe Biden had declared Juneteenth (June 19) a national holiday last year.
It was declared a federal holiday after black protests erupted nationwide in 2020 following the killings of a black man and a woman in an unprovoked assault by police.
Minneapolis man George Floyd was shot dead in suspicion of carrying counterfeit notes, while Louisville woman Breonna Taylor was shot dead during a drug raid at her home that year.
Juneteenth has been observed as the official day of emancipation of black people from slavery since 1866. Juneteenth had been recognized as a holiday by 47 states, and in June this year, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey also authorized it as a holiday.
The 2020 black killings laid bare the inequality in the US justice system, invoking the legacy of slavery.
Significance of Juneteenth
On January 1, 1863, US President Abraham Lincoln issued an Emancipation Proclamation to free the enslaved African Americans in the secessionist states. However, those who were enslaved in Galveston, Texas, were unaware of their freedom until two years later.
It was only on June 19, 1865, two years after the proclamation, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger informed the Galveston community about Lincoln’s decree. The enslaved of Galveston were kept in the dark until two years. Maj. Gen. Gordon ordered the Galveston community to comply with the proclamation, thus liberating the enslaved from that day on.
Texas was the last Confederate state where the proclamation was announced. However, it was also the first to recognize the date of June 19 as Juneteenth, statewide.
The inaugural Juneteenth celebration began in 1866 to commemorate the official day when enslaved people in Galveston began to be freed. Also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, it then spread across the nation as African Americans migrated away from the South.
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Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021
In June 2021, Congress passed The Juneteenth National Independence Day Act after the Senate voted for the bill unanimously. President Biden inked the bill on June 17, two days before Juneteenth.
The federal government followed the footsteps of the 47 states that already recognized Juneteenth.
The Juneteenth bill was first introduced in 2020 by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., in the wake of the murders of Floyd and Taylor. But he did not pass the bill.
Bottom line:
America will celebrate Juneteenth as a federal holiday for the first time this year. Under the act, federal employees are granted a holiday on June 19. Since June 19 falls on Sunday this year, it is declared a federal holiday on June 20, Monday.
