JUNETEENTH

Juneteenth short for “June Nineteenth” marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston Texas, in1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed.

The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest running African American holiday.

On June 17, 2021, it officially became a federal holiday. Juneteenth was first recognized as a state holiday in Texas in 1980. In the decades since every state but South Dakota formally recognized Juneteenth as a state or ceremonial holiday.

When he was senator for Illinois Barack Obama cosponsored legislation to make Juneteenth a national holiday, but the law was never passed. Even after he became president.

But the legislation gain momentum after Black Lives Matter protests around the country in the summer of 2020.

In the lead-up of 19 June 2021 both chambers of the US congress moved swiftly to pass the bill and the signature of President Biden it became Law.

In 2016, 89-year-old Opal Lee walked from Texas to Washington DC. To raise awareness and encourage lawmakers.

She walked 2.5 miles each day, representing the two and a half years that it took enslaved People in Texas to learn they had been freed.

“I got so many different feelings, all gurgling up in here”, Ms. Lee said after Congress approved the New Federal Holiday. It’s not a Texas thing or a Black thing, It’s an American thing.