Juneteenth is observed annually on June 19 to commemorate the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the United States learned they were free. It was first celebrated in Texas.
Although the holiday, which is also known as “Freedom Day” or “Emancipation Day,” has long been celebrated in the Black American community, the significant event has not always had national recognition.
Recent online search trends show many people are wondering if Juneteenth is now a federal holiday in the U.S.
THE QUESTION
Is Juneteenth a federal holiday?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
Yes, Juneteenth is a federal holiday.
WHAT WE FOUND
Juneteenth officially became a federal holiday in the U.S. after President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law on June 17, 2021.
The story of how Juneteenth came to be begins on Jan. 1, 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation declared that all enslaved people in states that had seceded from the United States “shall be free.”
But the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways, according to the National Archives and Records Administration.
The National Archives says the Emancipation Proclamation applied only to states that had seceded from the Union and did not affect the status of slaves in loyal border states. It also exempted parts of the Confederacy that were already under Union control. Most importantly, the freedom the Emancipation Proclamation promised depended upon a Union military victory against the Confederate army.
That meant the proclamation had little impact on the enslaved people in Texas at that time “due to the small number of Union troops available to enforce it,” according to the Galveston Historical Foundation.
It wasn’t until June 19, 1865, more than two and half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and his 2,000 troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, over two months after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia.
While in Galveston, Granger announced through the reading of General Order No. 3 that the Civil War was over and the more than 250,000 enslaved people in the state were now free.
“The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer,” Granger read.
Slavery was permanently abolished six months later, when Georgia ratified the 13th Amendment on Dec. 6, 1865. The next year, in 1866, the newly freed people of Galveston started celebrating Juneteenth, an observance that has continued and spread around the world. Annual Juneteenth events include concerts, parades, festivals, art exhibits and readings of the Emancipation Proclamation.
The national reckoning over race ignited by the 2020 murder of George Floyd helped set the stage for Juneteenth to become the first new federal holiday since 1983, when Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created. Juneteenth National Independence Day is now the 12th federal holiday observed in the U.S.
As a result, post offices, banks and the stock market will be closed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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