Juneteenth holiday – June 19th
America’s newest federal holiday celebrates emancipation from slavery
by Pinedale Online!
June 17, 2022
June 19, "Juneteeth" – is the newest federal holiday in the United States. In 2021, Congress and President Biden moved to pass the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act which made it an official federal holiday. That means it's established by law, such as other holidays, including Labor Day, Memorial Day and New Year's Day. Juneteenth is the 11th federal holiday in the U.S.
The name "Juneteenth" is a blend of two words: "June" and "nineteenth." It's believed to be the oldest African-American holiday, with annual celebrations on June 19th in different parts of the country dating back to 1866. The day is also called Emancipation Day and Freedom Day.
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of the Civil War. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." Because of the times, not everyone heard about the Proclamation at the same time. Because the war was still in progress, it wasn’t until the war ended and the south lost that it took military presence to enforce the proclamation in places still somewhat rebellious and wanting slavery. The Civil War ended on April 9, 1865.
The central cause of the war was the status of slavery, and the economics associated with it, especially the expansion of slavery into territories acquired as a result of the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican–American War. It was considered a state’s rights issue by the confederate states of the south. In 1860, a United States census counted nearly four million enslaved people living in the country.
Texas was the last Confederate state where the proclamation was announced. Juneteenth commemorates the events of June 19, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved African Americans that the Civil War had ended and they were free. Texas was the first state to recognize the date of June 19, "Juneteenth," statewide, officially adopting it as a state holiday in 1980. Even though technically slaves were freed in the United States two years earlier in 1863 with the Emancipation Proclamation, the 1865 date was important to the people living in Texas.
Juneteenth was the first time the federal government had designated a new national holiday since approving Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983. The designation makes the day a paid holiday for federal employees. As with other federal holidays, when it falls on a weekend, it is observed on either the nearest Friday or Monday as a paid day off for those employees and federal offices.
Most states recognize the date with some sort of observance, but not all designate it as an official state holiday in which they close state offices and give their public employees paid time off. Only nine states list Juneteeth as an official state holiday as of 2021. It is not listed as a state holiday on the Wyoming Secretary of State website. Expect federal offices to be closed in Wyoming on Monday, June 20th, but state and county offices, and most businesses, will be open.
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