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Congress votes overwhelmingly to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. The day commemorates the end of slavery in Texas in 1865. [washingtonpost.com]

 

By Mike DeBonis, The Washington Post, June 16, 2021

Congress on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to establish Juneteenth as a federal holiday, elevating the day marking the end of slavery in Texas to a national commemoration of emancipation amid a larger reckoning about America’s turbulent history with racism.

It is the first new federal holiday created by Congress since 1983, when lawmakers voted to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day after a 15-year fight to commemorate the assassinated civil rights leader.

The congressional fight to establish Juneteenth as a national holiday was, in comparison, a relatively rapid affair — approved Wednesday by the House on a 415 to 14 vote just a day after the bill establishing the holiday moved suddenly and unanimously through the Senate. The push to establish June 19 as a national holiday celebrating emancipation only gained serious traction last year, as the nation erupted in turmoil over the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer.

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