The Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, which establishes a holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States, was signed and signed into law by President Joe Biden.
Although Juneteenth has been commemorated in one way or another every June 19 since 1866 – depending on each state – since 2021 it has been a federal holiday, which means that at the national level all employees of federal government institutions have paid day off.
Although it is not mandatory, by implication other institutions such as banks, companies, schools are expected to close and furlough their employees, as happens on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, or New Year’s Day.
“I have only been president for a few months, but I think this will be remembered, at least by me, as one of the greatest honors I will have had as president,” Biden said during the event in which he signed the minutes.
But it has been a long road leading to this moment, with American civil rights organizations, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), long pushing for convert this date to festive at the national level.
The approval of the holiday takes on special relevance, amid the historic wave of protests against racism unleashed by the murder of George Floyd and the death of other African-Americans at the hands of the police.
Previously there were gestures like that of the now former San Francisco 49ers American football player Colin Kaepernick who knelt during the national anthem in protest against racism in the country and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
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What is the origin of Juneteenth?
The name comes from a combination of the English words “June” (June) and “nineteen” (nineteen) and it is the date that marks the end of slavery in the United States, one of the most important events in the country.
It is also known as the Emancipation Day and the Freedom Day.
President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which formally freed all slaves, two years before that date, but it took a while for it to become a reality for everyone.
First, the American Civil War had to end.
Texas was among the Confederate states that They fought to keep slavery and they fought against the states of the Union, who wanted to abolish it.
And Texas was the last state to surrender to the Union Army, and also the last where the enslaved African Americans They found out that they were free.
When the Union general Gordon Granger He read the document in the city of Galveston (Texas), the war had ended and Lincoln had been assassinated by a Confederate sympathizer in a theater.
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How did it become a federal law?
At the state or ceremonial level, 49 of the 50 states of the Union, as well as Washington DC, formally recognize Juneteenth as a holiday. South Dakota is the only one left to adopt it.
When former President Barack Obama was a senator from Illinois, he and others introduced the bill to make the date a national holiday, but the legislation was never approved, even though he was president.
This year, large companies such as Nike, Uber, Twitter and many others announced that they would be giving their employees Juneteenth off with pay.
Governors in some states, including New York and Virginia, also declared the holiday for state employees.
This Wednesday, the US House of Representatives backed the legislation by 415 votes to 14, a day after it was unanimously approved by the Senate. With President Biden’s signature, the law was signed into law.
The 14 representatives who voted against were all Republicans. One of Montana’s lawmakers said the law was about “identity politics.” Another Kentuckian opponent argued that the law “will create confusion and force Americans to choose one of two dates as their Independence Day based on their racial identity.”
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This is the first federal holiday created since Martin Luther King Jr. Day. (the assassinated leader of the civil rights movement) was established in 1983.
Efforts to have Juneteenth declared a national holiday spanned decades.
In 2016, Opal Lee, an 89-year-old woman, walked from Texas – where Juneteenth has been recognized as a state holiday since 1980 – to Washington, DC, to get lawmakers to support the measure at the federal level.
He walked 4 kilometers every dayadding up to two and a half years – the time it took for slaves in Texas to learn that they had been freed.
“I have so many different feelings bubbling up in here,” Lee said after the approval vote in Congress. “I don’t know what to call all of them. “I am so delighted to know that we already have a Juneteenth.”
“It has nothing to do with Texas or black people. It has to do with (all of) the United States.”
What happened differently to promote the measure?
The end of slavery did not get rid of racism, and in subsequent years the so-called Jim Crow laws pto segregate black citizens from white society and limit your civil rights.
The legacy of those laws is still being dismantled in the country.
Despite the progress made by the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, with more and more Afro-descendants in government positions, the black citizen is still a victim of exclusion, discrimination and violence. hands of the authorities.
In 2016, then-prominent American football player Colin Kaepernick He began kneeling during the national anthem before games as a protest against racism and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
That act was the trigger for a wave of protests that led to a national debate in which then-President Donald Trump actively participated, who harshly criticized the player’s position and publicly clashed with players and other sports stars.
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The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other African Americans at the hands of the police also generated protests against racism, organized by followers of the Black Lives Matter movement.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, Trump was forced to postpone a political rally that had originally been planned for June 19, after facing criticism amid anti-racism demonstrations taking place across the country.
On the other hand, several Democrats argue that recent electoral reforms passed in Republican-governed states are making it more difficult for ethnic minorities who often sympathize with Democrats to vote.
The enactment of Juneteenth also occurred in the midst of a Heated debate over the history of slavery and how it should be taught in US schools.
Some Republican-controlled states have pushed for schools to teach Trump’s preferred “patriotic education” and limit or ban subjects that seek to reassess the importance of slavery in the nation’s foundation.
Has the US government ever apologized for slavery?
The Democratic President Bill Clinton He apologized for the slave trade during a trip to Africa in 1998.
Ten years later, the U.S. House of Representatives issued an apology that also included the decades of segregation laws against African Americans.
The following year, the United States Senate carried out a similar act.
However, for many groups in the country, these apologies are not enough.
In the United States, various groups demand compensations for the descendants of slavesbut the issue is deeply divisive in the country.
In a poll last year, 74% of African Americans supported the measure, while 85% of white people opposed it.
How is Juneteenth celebrated?
Juneteenth traditions and celebrations vary across the U.S. In some states, parades are held and people gather to eat, watch, and play sports.
Likewise, there are readingsrecitals and public singing, picnics and religious services. In other states, rodeos and competitions are organized.
Food plays an important role, with barbecues being one of the most popular ways to spend the day with family and friends.
The most characteristic dish of this day is the “Marcus Garvey salad”, named in honor of a black activist and prepared with red, green and black beans.
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