Washington ¨C U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris signed a bill into law on Thursday to make June 19 a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans as the White House pushes to address the country¡¯s historical injustices.
The bill, which was passed overwhelmingly by the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday after clearing the Senate unanimously, marks the day in 1865 when a Union general informed a group of enslaved people in Texas that they had been made free two years earlier by President Abraham Lincoln¡¯s Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War.
¡°Juneteenth marks both a long hard night of slavery subjugation and a promise of a brighter morning to come,¡± Biden said. The day is a reminder of the ¡°terrible toll that slavery took on the country and continues to take.¡±
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