President Biden officially made Juneteenth a national holiday on June 17, 2021, as he signed the new measure into law after the Senate passed the bill. Juneteenth celebrates June 19, 1865, the day Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger announced in Galveston, Texas, the end of slavery in accordance with President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and declared all people held in slavery must be freed. Many slaves were unaware that the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed as their masters faled to tell them the news. Juneteenth memorializes the official announcement of freedom.
