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ROCK HILL, SC (WBTV) -Juinth is officially a Federal holiday.
A bill designating it as a federal holiday was passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress on Wednesday. President Biden signed the bill Thursday afternoon. Juneteenth will be the most recent national holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It happened almost 40 years ago.
Some people have been thinking about this for quite some time.
I think it would be a great idea to better represent our country as a whole, said Genesis Doster.
Others don’t really have a lot of information about it.
I know it, but I don’t even really remember what it is, says James Smart.
There are probably too many federal holidays right now, but why not have another one? one person said.
Juneteenth commemorates the day the last enslaved Africans learned they were free. A group of Union soldiers marched to Galveston, Texas to announce the end of the Civil War and the liberation of slaves. It was more than two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
When Blacks learned they were finally free, which happened on June 19, or June 17, there was cause for celebration. For blacks, Juneteenth marks the struggles of slavery but also the empowerment felt knowing that the last slaves have been freed.
A little excited for Juneteenth to become a federal holiday, said Dr. Norma Gray, president of the NAACP Rock Hill. The fact that the legislation caught up with him was great news to hear, but not something that made me want to do the wheel and the back flips.
Norma Gray says this new move is a distraction from what’s really needed. She hopes those working on more reforms for blacks don’t forget the real change that needs to happen to help.
It’s a bit like giving us gravy without meat. I need something with teeth, she said.
In most African American communities, we have recognized it. We have been celebrating this for as long as I can remember. But what we really need is legislation that will improve the situation and change systemic racism, she explained.
For her, that includes voting rights, education bills and police reform. While lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to make this holiday happen, Gray believes larger legislation is struggling to take off.
Juneteenth speaks of freedom. We will not be free until we are all equal at the federal level, Gray said.
In his speech on Thursday, President Joe Biden said he and Congress are working to provide more money to black entrepreneurs and historically black universities and colleges. He also says he wants to bring more black homeowners and more black and brown children to school even earlier. Biden said there was still work to be done.
Juneteenth falls on a Saturday this year, but federal workers will have a Friday off to celebrate the new holiday.
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