Is Juneteenth a federal holiday?

WASHINGTON — Juneteenth is observed annually on June 19 to commemorate the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the United States learned they were free. The holiday name is a blend of the words June and nineteenth.

Although the holiday, which is also known as “Freedom Day” or “Emancipation Day,” has long been celebrated in the Black American community, the significant event has not always had national recognition.

Juneteenth officially became a federal holiday in the U.S. after President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law on June 17, 2021.

Despite the new federal holiday status, Juneteenth holds a 160-year history and has been celebrated for generations by Black Americans.

No, not on his own. Northeastern University law expert Jeremy Paul explained in a post that federal holidays, like Juneteenth, “are established by Congress and cannot be revoked just by a president.”

It’s important to note that while Trump has focused on a rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives since returning to office, he hasn’t signaled a desire to get rid of Juneteenth’s recognition as a federal holiday. 

Through the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, enslaved people in the Confederate states were declared legally free, but the proclamation couldn’t be enforced in places still under Confederate control.

As a result, enslaved people in Texas didn’t become free until after the end of the Civil War.

On June 19, 1865, Union Major Gen. Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in Galveston Bay, announcing that the quarter million enslaved Black people in Texas were free by executive decree. 

“The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer,” Granger read.

Why it took so long to get the news to Texas remains unclear. According to Juneteenth.com, one belief is that a messenger sent to give word of the newly declared freedoms was murdered. Another is that the news was deliberately withheld by slave owners. And there was the fact that there were few Union soldiers in Texas to deliver the news.

Slavery was permanently abolished six months later, when Georgia ratified the 13th Amendment on Dec. 6, 1865. The next year, in 1866, the newly freed people of Galveston started celebrating Juneteenth, an observance that has continued and spread around the world.

Now that Juneteenth is a federal holiday, many banks and offices will be closed. Here is a list of some of the places and services that’ll be closed on Thursday, June 19, 2025: 

• The U.S. Post Office  

• Many banks, including Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase and Co., Wells Fargo, Truist, CitiBank and Capital One

• Most federal government offices

• The U.S. stock market