2024 marks the 4th Juneteenth Day of Observance. It celebrates when freedom finally came to the more than 250,000 enslaved people in Texas on June 19, 1865.
It began in Galveston, Texas, as a way to commemorate the day (June 19, 1865) when Federal troops took control of the state of Texas, two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation into law in 1863.
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Major General Gordon Granger traveled to Galveston on June 19 and announced that the Civil War has ended, and all enslaved people were to be freed.
President Joe Biden signed the “Juneteenth National Independence Day Act” into law, and it was officially recognized as a federal holiday in the U.S. on June 17, 2021.
Related: What is open, closed on Juneteenth 2024 in South Florida
The state of Florida does not officially recognize the holiday as a state holiday on official state calendars even though Gov. Ron DeSantis did issue a resolution in 2020.
There have been repeated attempts in the Florida Legislature to make Juneteenth an official holiday in the state since the resolution.
The official holiday this year is commemorated on Wednesday, June 19.