The Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed legislation establishing Juneteenth as a national holiday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) made a motion to pass the bill, and no senator objected.
What is Juneteenth ?
In 1863, during the American Civil War, Pres. Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared more than three million slaves living in the Confederate states to be free. More than two years would pass, however, before the news reached African Americans living in Texas. It was not until Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, that the state’s residents finally learned that slavery had been abolished. The former slaves immediately began to celebrate with prayer, feasting, song, and dance.
The first Juneteenth celebration took place place in Texas on June 19th,1866.