Juneteenth becomes a federal holiday

June 19 is now officially Juneteenth National Independence Day, a US federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.

Here’s what you need to know about the holiday and its history:

Read more about the Juneteenth federal holiday here.

Juneteenth, the first federal holiday since Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 1983, commemorates the end of slavery for the last slaves in Texas, nearly two years after Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.

There are 11 current federal holidays, according to an informative report online from the Congressional Research Service.

Federal holidays started just as holidays for federal workers in Washington, DC. Now, many companies also observe many of them, but not all. And the new holiday will be observed on Friday because June 19 falls on a Saturday this year.

The full annual list of holidays is, according to US law:

Lawmakers tied most holidays to Mondays rather than a fixed date in 1968, giving people long weekends. But rather than just give everyone a day off, there's also the idea that these holidays should mean something.

Former President Barack Obama pushed Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a day of service, for instance. Veterans Day began as a day to commemorate the end of World War I. Then known as Armistice Day, it was made a federal holiday in 1938, just before World War II broke out.

Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving from the last Thursday in November to the third, specifically to give people more time to shop for Christmas.

Another exception to the list​​: Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, is observed every four years. But Election Day, the first Tuesday after the first Monday every other November, is not a holiday.

There have been periodic pushes to make Election Day a holiday since it could enable more people to vote, but Republicans have objected to that proposal.

When it was proposed in 2019, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the idea of giving Americans the day off to vote was, "a power grab that's smelling more and more like exactly what it is."

There have similarly been efforts for other federal holidays. Cesar Chavez Day on March 31. Susan B. Anthony Day or Womens' Suffrage Day on Feb. 15. Those will have to wait.

Some context: As it stands now, there are 11 federal holidays each year and one extra each leap year. That works out to a little less than one per month, with two in January and none in March, April or August.

You can honor Juneteenth and amplify its importance in your own community with the following organizations and virtual opportunities:

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Before Juneteenth became an official federal holiday, 94-year-old Opal Lee was on a mission.

Days later, the spirited nonagenarian shouted with delight as she watched Congress pass a bill to make Juneteenth — June 19 — a nationwide holiday commemorating the end of slavery.

"I've got so many different feelings all gurgling up here — I don't know what to call them all," she told CNN affiliate KTVT in Fort Worth, Texas, where she lives.

Right now she plans to savor the moment. But the woman who spent years fighting for Juneteenth stresses there's work left to do to push back against racism.

"We've got all of these disparities that we've got to address and I mean all of them. While we've got some momentum, I hope we can get some of it done. We can have one America if we try," she told KTVT.

Read more here.

President Biden said that signing legislation into law on Thursday establishing June 19 as Juneteenth National Independence Day — a US federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States — will go down as "one of the greatest honors" of his presidency.

"I have to say to you, I've only been President for several months, but I think this will go down, for me, as one of the greatest honors I will have as President," Biden said at the White House during a signing ceremony.

"I regret that my grandchildren aren't here, because this is a really, really, really important moment in our history. By making Juneteenth a federal holiday, all Americans can feel the power of this day and learn from our history — and celebrate progress and grapple with the distance we've come (and) the distance we have to travel," Biden said.

During the ceremony, the President said it was not enough to commemorate the holiday, but to use it as a day of reflection and action.

Biden also underscored how his White House agenda is working to deliver equality and emphasized that the promise of equality is not going to fulfilled "so long as the sacred right to vote remains under attack." The President specifically pointed to restrictive voter laws, calling them "an assault that offends our very democracy."

The ceremony, which took place in the East Room, included some 80 members of Congress —including members of the Congressional Black Caucus, local elected officials, community leaders and activists. The President specifically noted that Opal Lee, the activist who campaigned to establish Juneteenth as a federal holiday, was in attendance.

Biden, speaking at the White House alongside Vice President Kamala Harris, repeated the sentiments he relayed when he commemorated the Tulsa race massacre earlier, that "great nations don't ignore their most painful moments."

"They embrace them. Great nations don't walk away. We've come to terms with the mistakes we made and in remembering those moments, we begin to heal and grow stronger," the President said.

The holiday is the first federal holiday established since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983 and becomes at least the eleventh federal holiday recognized by the US federal government. The US Office of Personnel Management announced Thursday that most federal employees will observe the holiday on Friday since Juneteenth falls on a Saturday this year.

Read more about the Juneteenth federal holiday here.

Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and CEO of The King Center, said the passage of the bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday is "an important moment of reckoning."

The holiday commemorates the day, June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger announced in Galveston, Texas, the end of slavery in accordance with President Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.

"This nation now will have an opportunity to learn even more about this important history that African Americans have faced. It's a moment that creates a more sense of inclusion, you know. A lot of Black Americans don't feel included on our Independence day as a nation because so many of our ancestors were not free," King noted.

King also highlighted the ceremonial nature of the holiday and how there is still more work to be done.

"There's just so much that has to happen in our Senate to really deliver substance to the Black community," she said.

President Biden just signed a bill establishing Juneteenth — the day commemorating the end of slavery in the United States — as a federal holiday. Many federal workers will observe the holiday tomorrow, since this year June 19 falls on a Saturday.

The holiday is the first federal holiday established since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.

But the news of the new federal holiday comes at a time where multiple states have moved to ban schools from teaching critical race theory, which recognizes that systemic racism is part of American society and challenges the beliefs that allow it to flourish.

Critical race theory has become politicized in recent months, with opponents arguing the area of study is based on Marxism and is a threat to the American way of life. But critical race theory — according to scholars who study it — explores the ways in which a history of inequality and racism in the United States has continued to impact American society today.

"It's an approach to grappling with a history of White supremacy that rejects the belief that what's in the past is in the past and that the laws and systems that grow from that past are detached from it," Kimberlé Crenshaw, a founding critical race theorist and a law professor at UCLA and Columbia University, told CNN last year.

And yet, across the country, local boards of education and states are pushing against teaching the impact of systemic racism and critical race theory in schools, calling it indoctrination.

President Biden just signed a bill establishing June 19 as Juneteenth National Independence Day.

The US federal holiday commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, and it is the first federal holiday established since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.

The US Office of Personnel Management announced Thursday that most federal employees will observe the holiday on Friday since Juneteenth falls on a Saturday this year.

The legislation, which was passed by Congress on Wednesday, gained momentum following Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd last year. It was also spurred after Democrats won the White House and control of the House of Representatives and the US Senate.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Major General Gordon Granger announced the end of slavery in Galveston, Texas, in accordance with President Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Only a handful of states currently observe Juneteenth as a paid holiday.

Read more about the federal holiday here.

President Biden used a portion of his White House remarks before signing a bill to make Juneteenth a new federal holiday to recognize Opal Lee, calling her an "incredible woman."

"Opal, you're incredible. A daughter of Texas. Grandmother of the movement to make Juneteenth a federal holiday," Biden said of the 94-year-old activist.

Biden said that as a child growing up in Texas, Lee's family would celebrate Juneteenth. The President shared that on June 19, 1939, when Lee was 12 years old, a White mob torched her family home. Biden noted that such hate "never stopped her" from her efforts to make it a federal holiday.

In 2016, then 89-year-old Lee set out on foot from her home in Fort Worth, Texas, with the goal of reaching the nation's capital. Determined to see Juneteenth become a national holiday, she hoped that "surely somebody would notice a little old lady in tennis shoes."

The "grandmother of Juneteenth" continued to push for the effort with an annual 2.5-mile walk in her hometown, symbolizing the two-and-a-half years it took for word of the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation to reach enslaved people in Texas.

Earlier this year, she flew to Washington, DC, to push for Juneteenth legislation during the week Senate and House lawmakers re-introduced the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act.

CNN's Harmeet Kaur contributed reporting to this post. 

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