Juneteenth was unanimously approved by the Senate as the next Federal Holiday on Tuesday. Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) co-sponsored the bill with Sen. Ed Markey (D., Mass.) in a rare show of bipartisanship. Not a single Democrat or Republican objected to the new holiday. “Juneteenth commemorates the moment some of the last formerly enslaved people in the nation learned they were free,” said Senator Chuck Schumer in a statement. “Making Juneteenth a federal holiday is a major step forward to recognize the wrongs of the past—but we must continue to work to ensure equal justice and fulfill the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation and our Constitution.”
Juneteenth is currently the second most celebrated holiday created in the wake of the Civil War. It recalls the Union Army’s liberation of Texas from the Confederates and the ending of human slavery in Texas. African Americans created the holiday in the years after the Civil War and it has been celebrated for more than 150 years. Republican Senator John Cornyn said “The freedom of all Americans that Texas celebrates every Juneteenth should be celebrated all across the nation.”
You can read the Congressional Research Service report on Juneteenth here.
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