In 2021, President Joe Biden made Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday, and most states and many companies give it recognition and hold celebrations. President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation became effective in 1863, during the Civil War, but could not be implemented until Union troops wrested areas from Confederate control. Juneteenth, or June 19th, marks the day in 1865 when a Union general informed a group of enslaved people in Texas that they were free. “It’s the true Independence Day, the day when all Americans were free.” “This is America’s holiday, not just African Americans’ holiday,” said Gerald Griggs, the Georgia state president of the NAACP civil rights organization. ATLANTA (Reuters) -With street parties, the trumpets and drums of marching bands, speeches and a few political rallies, people across the United States marked Juneteenth this weekend, a jubilee commemorating the end of the legal enslavement of Black Americans.Įvents started on Friday and continued through Sunday featuring concerts at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, freedom walks in Galveston, Texas, and jazz music in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood.
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