Opal Lee

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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."

President Biden signs the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, establishing June 19 as a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States. The legislation passes the Senate unanimously and the House 415-14. It is the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established in 1983. The signing comes one day before the first-ever Juneteenth federal holiday. Biden, Vice President Harris, and surviving civil rights leaders attend the signing ceremony.