NEW YORK, USA - JUNE 18: A new Federal Holiday ''Juneteenth'' is celebrated in the heart of Harlem, New York City, United States on June 18, 2021.
President Biden signed legislation making June 19, or Juneteenth, a new national holiday. (Photo by Tay On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas - some 2 1/2 years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had freed slaves in Southern states.
The news came also more than two months after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia.The next year, the now-free people started celebrating Juneteenth in Galveston.Then, more than a hundred years later, Texas became the first.