Federal agencies and corporations were left scrambling last year to give their employees the day off when Congress passed a bill making Juneteenth a national holiday and President Joe Biden signed it into law. It’s the first federal holiday created since Martin Luther King Jr. Day nearly four decades ago.
June 19, 1865, commemorates the day enslaved Blacks in Galveston, Texas, received word they were free. This news came 2 ½ years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Blacks have been commemorating this day for more than 150 years in Texas, and now the rest of America will participate.
Here are five ways you can observe Juneteenth this year:
- Attend a Freedom Day event
- Visit a local or national museum of African American history
- Support a Black-owned business
- Watch an educational documentary or TV special on Juneteenth
- Read and educate yourself on the history of the holiday
