On June 17, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris signed a bill designating June 19 as officially Juneteenth National Independence Daya U.S. federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in this country.
With the signatures, Juneteenth is the first holiday to be approved since Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which was established in 1983, according to CNN.com .
Biden said, "By making Juneteenth a federal holiday, all Americans can feel the power of this day and learn from our history, and celebrate progress, and grapple with the distance we've come but the distance we have to travel to," according to Yahoo! News.
The bill faced only slight opposition in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this week from some Republicans who cast the measure as racially divisive. Despite protests, only 14 members of the House GOP caucus voted against the legislation. The U.S. Senate unanimously passed the bill.
Despite being celebrated since 1865, it was only until 1980 that Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth a state holiday. Momentum to recognize the occasion was generated by the Black Lives Matter movement last year.
The day commemorates June 19, 1865the day Union Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, and told slaves of their emancipation. That day came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863.