06/19/2023
Juneteenth is an annual holiday observing the end of slavery in the U.S. It marks the day (June 19, 1865) when news of emancipation reached people in the deepest parts of the former Confederacy in Galveston, Texas.
On January 1, 1980, Juneteenth officially became a Texas state holiday.
In 2021, it became the first new federal holiday created by Congress in nearly four decades.
The first known official movement to make Juneteenth a federal holiday began in 1994 and the first congressional resolution recognizing Juneteenth Independence Day was introduced in the 105th Congress in 1997.