Newsweek has everything you need to know about Juneteenth, including banks, schools, universities and more.
In 2021 President Joe Biden signed legislation that made Juneteenth a federal holiday. This is the first federal holiday to be approved in the U.S. since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was put in place in 1983. The holiday celebrates the emancipation of slaves in the U.S. It marks the occasion on June 19, 1865, when General Gordon Granger arrived in Texas and announced that the Civil War was over. Although President Abraham Lincoln had declared the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier, many slaveholders didn’t abide by the declaration, and did not free their slaves. Due to this, the federal holiday is set to be celebrated annually on June 19. However, this year it falls on a Sunday, but will be celebrated the following Monday (June 20).
