Juneteenth Becomes Federal Holiday

President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act on June 17, 2021, making June 19 — the date in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, TX learned of their emancipation — a federal holiday. The bill passed the Senate unanimously and the House 415-14. Juneteenth had been celebrated in Black communities for over 150 years and was already a state holiday in 49 states. The federal recognition was seen as long overdue acknowledgment of slavery's centrality to American history, though some advocates said it risked becoming commercialized without substantive policy change.