Ninety-four-year-old activist and retired educator Opal Lee, known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth, speaks with U.S. President Joe Biden after he signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law in the East Room of the White House on June 17, 2021 in Washington, DC. Photo Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Society USAThe Day Slavery Ended is Now an Official Holiday
Driven by the Black Lives Matter protests and the Democrats’ takeover of the White House and the Congress, June 19 has officially become Juneteenth National Independence Day, a US holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.
“I look forward to bringing this bill to the Floor, and urge bipartisan support,” says House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, thanking the bill’s bipartisan sponsors. The Senate voted unanimously in favor of the resolution.
In 1980, Juneteenth became a Texas state holiday. In Galveston, Texas, on June 19, the end of slavery was announced, according to President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Since 1980, all states but South Dakota commemorate Juneteenth, but few have made it a paid holiday. It will now become the 12th federal holiday.