Juneteenth: What to Know About the Newest Federal Holiday and How It's Observed
Juneteenth is just weeks away, and 2022 will mark the second year it's been an official federal holiday. Last year, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, making it the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day, added in 1983. Juneteenth -- a portmanteau of the date it's celebrated -- marks the freedom of enslaved Black people in the US. It's also known as Freedom Day or Jubilee Day.
"The emancipation of enslaved Black Americans didn't mark the end of America's work to deliver on the promise of equality; it only marked the beginning," Biden said just minutes before signing Juneteenth into law in 2021. "To honor the true meaning of Juneteenth, we have to continue toward that promise because we've not gotten there yet."