Juneteenth Independence Day, in the year 2022,
becomes a federal holiday.

    President Joe Biden established Juneteenth Independence Day a federal holiday when he signed into law a bill passed by both chambers of Congress June 17, 2020. There were 14 House Republicans who voted against making Juneteenth a federal holiday. The senate voted unanimously in favor of the holiday.
     The Civil War began April 12, 1861 in Fort Sumter, South Carolina and ended April 9, 1865 when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on
April 9, 1865.
     The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, approximately one year and eight months after the Civil War began. Only a small number of the country's 432,586 million slaves were freed immediately. The population of the United States in 1863 was 31,443,321. Total number of slaves were 432,586 (13%) of the population.
      After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863 slaves in Texas were not told they were free. Things didn't change for them until 1865 when troops arrived to ensure them that they can be/are free. With the reading of Executive Order 3 by Union General Gordon Granger, 250,000 enslaved people living in Texas, a number that included those brought to Texas from other states after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, were freed on June 19, 1865.
       For a number of years this writer, Uriah J. Fields, participated in the Juneteenth celebration in Charlottesville,  Virginia. The late Tamyra Turner for a number of years was the organizer of Charlottesville's Juneteenth celebration that was held at Piedmont Virginia Commuity College were she was a professor. Since 2016 observance of Juneteenth in Charlottesville has been held at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center.
  On October 13, 2022 Governor Ralph Northam signed a law to make Juneteenth an offical holiday in Virginia.
     Juneteenth was first celebrated in Galveston, Texas in the  1860s. It became an official holiday in Texas in 1980.
    Although the Emancipation Proclamation was  issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863 and the Civil War ended April 9, 1865, it was not until the Thirthteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery was passed by Congress and ratified, eight months after the Civil War ended on December 6, 1865 that legally slavery ended in the United States. 

Copyright 2022 by Uriah J. Fields