Juneteenth, the first federal holiday since Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 1983, commemorates the end of slavery for the last slaves in Texas, nearly two years after Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
A version of this story appeared in CNN's What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. I like holidays so the creation of a new federal observance -- Juneteenth, or June 19 -- had me looking at the how they've emerged in the US.
Juneteenth, the first federal holiday since Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 1983, commemorates the end of slavery for the last slaves in Texas, nearly two years after Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. It was created with overwhelming bipartisan support. That just 14 House Republicans opposed the measure should be an affirmation. That it may only have passed because a Republican, Wisconsin Sen.
And the nature of the holiday itself -- slavery ended in Texas years after it was over in Washington -- is evidence that change happens slowly. Emancipation Day, April 16, is a holiday in Washington, DC, just as Juneteenth has been a holiday in Texas since 1980.Republicans voted to make Juneteenth as a holiday even as they object with increased vigor to re-examining US history through the lens of what the US did wrong rather than what it did right.
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