House sends Juneteenth bill to Biden’s desk
MarketWatch
8 hrs ago
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will soon have a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the nation.
The House voted 415-14 Wednesday to make Juneteenth, or June 19th, the 12th federal holiday. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
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 and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in the Southern states.