Grace to you and peace.
It was in 2021, on June 17, that President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, making it the 11th American federal holiday, the first to obtain legal observance since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was designated in 1983. For decades, activists and congress members proposed legislation, advocated for, and built support for state and national observances.
Juneteenth, officially Juneteenth National Independence Day also known as Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, and Black Independence Day commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans. Originating in Galveston, Texas, it has been celebrated annually on June 19 in various parts of the United States since 1865.
Juneteenth’s commemoration is on the anniversary date of the June 19, 1865 proclamation of freedom for enslaved people in Texas, which was the last state of the confederacy with institutional slavery. The holiday is considered the “longest-running African American holiday” and has been called “America’s second Independence Day.”