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Biden legitimizes Juneteenth as new federal holiday

By Ishika Dangayach on Jun 18, 2021 | 04:38 AM IST

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President Joe Biden is scheduled to sign a bill on Thursday establishing Juneteenth, the date marking the end of slavery in the United States, as a federal holiday.

The signing ceremony at the White House begins at 3:30 p.m. ET, only two days before Juneteenth, which falls on June 19 each year. According to the White House, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will address in the East Room.

The bill, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives largely on Wednesday following a unanimous vote in the Senate, commemorates the day in 1865 when a Union general informed a group of enslaved people in Texas that they had been liberated two years earlier by President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War.

The rule comes a year after protests against racism and police erupted in the United States following the death of George Floyd, an African-American man, by a Minneapolis police officer.

Juneteenth will be the eleventh officially recognized holiday, joining the list with Christmas, New Year's Day, Thanksgiving, and Independence Day, as well as days commemorating presidents and the assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

The stock market will not close for Juneteenth this year but would consider suspending markets for the holiday in 2022.

Before the vote, several Republican legislators objected about the holiday's name, while others expressed worry about the cost of providing the federal workforce another day off. Some also chastised Democrats for rushing the package to a vote without first allowing committees to review it and propose modifications.

Despite this, the majority of House Republicans, even those who objected to provisions of the plan, voted in favor of it.

Meanwhile, The U.S. Office of Personnel Management said on Twitter that federal employees would begin taking the holiday off this year, observing it on Friday since Juneteenth occurs on Saturday.

Picture Credits: The NewYork Times


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