Juneteenth Joins List of Federal Holidays

President Joseph Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law on Thursday, adding Juneteenth to the list of official paid federal holidays.

The Senate unanimously passed the bill on June 15, 2021, with the House approving the Senate’s version in a 415-14 vote on June 16, 2021.

The last time Congress and the President added a new federal holiday was on November 2, 1983, when President Ronald Reagan signed Public Law No: 98-144, “A bill to amend Title 5, United States Code, to make the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a legal public holiday.”

Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.  On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger issued a general order in Galveston, Texas, that said all slaves in the state were freed, based on President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863.

On December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment was ratified and extended Lincoln’s prohibition on slavery beyond the former rebellious states, saying that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

Congressional Research Service says that Juneteenth celebrations started in Texas’s African-American community the following year. “Texans celebrated [the Juneteenth anniversary] beginning in 1866, with community-centric events, such as parades, cookouts, prayer gatherings, historical and cultural readings, and musical performances,” the CRS recounts.

Texas was the first state to recognize Juneteenth has an official holiday in 1980. Since then, 48 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws observing or commemorating Juneteenth, with legislation pending in Hawaii.