“We have a long road towards racial justice in the United States and we cannot get there without acknowledging our nation’s original sin of slavery,' Sen. Edward Markey tweeted. 'It is long past time to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.”
WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would make Juneteenth, or June 19th, a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
— Sen. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat Juneteenth commemorates when the last enslaved African Americans learned they were free. Confederate soldiers surrendered in April 1865, but word didn’t reach the last enslaved Black people until June 19, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to Galveston, Texas. That was also about two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
“ Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, had objected in the previous Congress to a bill to celebrate Juneteenth as a federal holiday because of the cost and lack of debate. ”
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