06/17/2021
On 9 April 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox, Virginia, a small town halfway between Richmond and Roanoke. The Civil War was over. The Union prevailed, outlawing the practice of being able to own another human being in the United States of America. But news of the war’s end trickled slowly across the nation by today’s standards. On 19 June 1865, it reached the shores of Galveston, Texas, where Major General Gorden Granger declared the Union's victory. It was then that the last of those enslaved learned they were free.
Many Black Americans have celebrated the event as Juneteenth since 1865. Until recently, though, the date has come and gone with the rest of America largely unaware of its significance. That cycle ended today. President Biden signed into law Juneteenth as a national holiday with Vice President Kamala Harris by his side. Both gave addresses from the East Room of the White House on Thursday. On Saturday, and for every June 19th hereafter, Americans will join as one to reflect and rejoice, to "sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us," and to sing one "full of the hope that the present has brought us."
The law takes effect immediately, making Friday the first federal Juneteenth holiday in American history.
