Juneteenth: A New Federal Holiday Commemorating Freedom

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Juneteenth Officially Becomes Juneteenth National Independence Day

WEB Juneteenth is now a federal holiday in the United States, officially known as Juneteenth National Independence Day. The legislation establishing the holiday passed Congress on June 16, 2021, and was signed into law.

WEB Juneteenth, short for June Nineteenth, commemorates the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, in 1865, to take control of the state and ensure the freedom of enslaved Africans.

WEB While Juneteenth has been celebrated by Black Americans since the mid-late 1800s, it has long been omitted from official history. However, on June 19, 1865, nearly two years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, Union troops finally arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, bringing the news that slavery had ended.