https://www.npr.org/2021/06/15/1006934154/senate-unanimously-approves-a-bill-to-make-juneteenth-a-public-holiday

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Senate OKs Legislation To Make Juneteenth A Legal Holiday Juneteenth
is an annual celebration held on June 19 to commemorate the end of
chattel slavery in America.
NPR logo Senate Unanimously Approves A Bill To Make Juneteenth A
Public Holiday

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Politics

Senate Unanimously Approves A Bill To Make Juneteenth A Public
Holiday

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June 15, 20216:21 PM ET

Alana Wise

Twitter
[ap_2115974]
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Juneteenth marks when enslaved people in Texas learned they had been
freed under the Emancipation Proclamation. Abraham Lincoln
Presidential Library and Museum via AP hide caption

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Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum via AP

Juneteenth marks when enslaved people in Texas learned they had been
freed under the Emancipation Proclamation.

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum via AP

The Senate unanimously approved a bill Tuesday that would make
Juneteenth, the date commemorating the end of chattel slavery in the
United States, a legal public holiday.

The holiday is celebrated on June 19, and it began in 1865 when
enslaved people in Texas learned they had been freed under the
Emancipation Proclamation.

President Abraham Lincoln had signed the proclamation outlawing
slavery years earlier, but it was not until 1865 that those in
bondage in Texas were freed.

Race

What Is Juneteenth? Historians Explain The Holiday's Importance

What Is Juneteenth? Historians Explain The Holiday's Importance

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  * Transcript

The measure is expected to be approved by the Democratic-led House of
Representatives as well, but the timing is unclear.

"Making Juneteenth a federal holiday is a major step forward to
recognize the wrongs of the past," Senate Majority Leader Chuck
Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement, "but we must continue to work
to ensure equal justice and fulfill the promise of the Emancipation
Proclamation and our Constitution."

The recognition of Juneteenth as a legal holiday comes amid a broader
national reckoning on race and the racism that helped shape America.

Academic calls to more critically examine the lens through which race
has molded public life, including in economics and the justice
system, have prompted backlash by some Republican lawmakers who say
that viewpoint unfairly villainizes white people and overstates the
extent to which racism is foundational to American society.

Republican legislation to limit teaching a historically accurate
picture of U.S. history in public institutions has advanced in some
half a dozen states. Teachers have warned that these efforts limit
their ability to engage critically with their students at a time when
much of the national conversation revolves around issues stemming
from race.

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