Thursday is Juneteenth, a federal holiday

Also called Emancipation Day, Freedom Day or Jubilee Day, Juneteenth is the commemoration of June 19, 1865, the day enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, learned that they were free.

This year will be the first Juneteenth under President Donald Trump’s second administration, which has banned diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, or DEI, in the federal government. This has included removing Black American history content from federal websites. Trump officials have also discouraged some federal agencies from recognizing other racial heritage celebrations.

While many people anticipate getting Juneteenth off work, given the current political climate, some may wonder if their company will honor it.

While President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, it only applied to people in Confederate states — those enslaved in Union-held territories were not freed until the proclamation of the 13th Amendment two years later.

In Texas, a Confederate state where there was no large Union Army presence, slavery continued years after the Emancipation Proclamation — and even after the 13th Amendment was passed — as many enslaved people in the state were not aware of the news.

Finally in June 1865, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and Union troops landed in Galveston to tell the enslaved African Americans living there that the Civil War had ended and that they were now free.

While Juneteenth has been celebrated since the late 1800s, it was not legally recognized as a national holiday until June 17, 2021 when President Biden signed a bill officially designating June 19 as a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in America. Over the decades, many states had recognized Juneteenth, but not all observed it as an official holiday.

Because Juneteenth is a federal holiday, banks, the post office, government offices and others that are usually closed on such holidays as Memorial Day, etc., will be closed Thursday.