What Is Juneteenth and How Did It Become a US Holiday?

Juneteenth is a celebration of Black history and freedom that went relatively unnoticed by White Americans for many years. It rose in prominence following the sweeping protests against racial injustice in 2020, when dozens of corporations moved to give their employees the day off. In 2021, Congress designated it a federal holiday. The New York Stock Exchange and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association began observing Juneteenth as a market holiday in 2022.

The holiday gets its name from June 19, 1865. That’s the day the Union army arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that all enslaved African Americans in the state were free in accordance with President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The state was the last in the Confederacy to receive word that the Civil War was over and that slavery had been abolished, and the last where the federal Army established its authority.