Justin Boggs
Monday marks 3rd year Juneteenth celebrated as national holiday
2021 marked the first time Juneteenth was declared a federal holiday, but it has been commemorated for over 150 years.
LEARN MOREPosted: 7:45 a.m. EDT Jun 19, 2023
Monday is Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the day in 1865 when the last remaining slaves in the U.S. were freed.
June 19 was designated a federal holiday by Congress in 2021. And for many government workers, it is a day out of the office. That means some services might be closed on Monday.
The federal government designates June 19 as “Juneteenth National Independence Day.” According to Pew Research, 28 states also recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday. In most of those states, state offices will close. Texas was the only state to permanently recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday prior to 2020. The state adopted it as a holiday starting in 1980.
Here is a look at what’s closed:
- Nonessential federal offices, courthouses
- U.S. post offices
- Most banks
- Stock markets
- Many public schools, city and state offices
Essential government offices, like the National Weather Service, will remain open. Also, U.S. national parks and Smithsonian museums remain open today.
Examples of nonessential offices closed on Monday include the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service.
Most retailers will keep their normal Monday hours for the day, although some might offer the day as a holiday to their employees.
The origins of Juneteenth date back to June 19, 1865, when slaves in Galveston, Texas, finally learned that President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation nearly 30 months earlier.
According to the Smithsonian, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston that day to deliver the news to the last remaining slaves in the U.S. Once they were freed, slavery officially came to an end in the U.S.
