NOTE: We’re posting this after the holiday has become a reality so people know where the hold up was.
The measure is now expected to move quickly through the House
Juneteenth is on its way to becoming a federal holiday. Hours after Sen. Ron Johnsonannounced he would drop his objections Tuesday, the Senate passed the bill.
The day commemorates June 19, 1865, when slaves in Galveston, Texas learned they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation more than two years earlier. Celebrated in 47 states and the District of Columbia, Juneteenth has long unofficially marked the day slavery in America truly ended.
Last year, in the wake of millions marching under the Black Lives Matters banner following the killing of George Floyd, a bipartisan group tried to get Congress to recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, introduced the measure in the House, while Edward Markey, D-Mass., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, made the push in the Senate. Continue reading.