Juneteenth Day in the United States is now one of 11 permanent federal holidays. In this sense, government offices, post offices, libraries, schools and the stock exchange remain closed as a national holiday, and most banks will remain closed on this day. This includes Bank of America and Wells Fargo, as well as credit unions. However, ATMs and mobile banking applications will have some services available.
Why is Juneteenth Day celebrated?
Juneteenth Day [June and Nineteenth] is observed every year on June 19. This day is also known as Emancipation Day and Freedom Day in the United States.
In 2021 President Joe Biden passed and signed legislation to recognize this day as a new official national holiday. But this is not a recent commemoration; it has been celebrated for a very long time.
Previously, 47 of the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia celebrated Juneteenth Day every June 19.
This is the date that commemorates the events of June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Texas. At that time, the last black slaves in the Confederacy were ordered freed after the arrival of Union troops. Therefore, it meant the end of slavery in the country.
The Emancipation Proclamation, signed in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln, granted freedom to all slaves. However, its effect was not so immediate, and it took a couple of years for freedom to become a collective reality.
In 1865, Union soldiers in Galveston announced to the slaves that they were free, and about 250,000 people were freed. This occurred two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, where the state of Texas was the last to abolish slavery.
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