Biden signs Juneteenth National Independence Day into law first new federal holiday since 1983

President Biden signs legislation creating Juneteenth National Independence Day, June 19, as a federal holiday, the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established in 1983. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas learned of their freedom, two months after the Civil War ended. The bill passes the Senate unanimously and the House 415-14. The signing is attended by descendants of enslaved Americans and civil rights icons. Biden notes the irony of celebrating freedom in a nation still grappling with racial injustice. He states "This is a day of profound weight and profound power... a day when we remember the moral stain, the terrible toll that slavery took."