Juneteenth: 4 interesting facts about the celebration marking end of slavery

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Friday, June 19, 2020

Not a National Holiday … Yet

The U.S. Capitol dome and U.S. Senate in Washington. | (Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

Despite its lengthy history and being widely observed in the United States, Juneteenth is not an official national holiday like Christmas or Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

However, especially this year amid protests and dialogues about racism following the killing of George Floyd, many have called for Juneteenth to become a national holiday.

“RT if you think Congress should make Juneteenth a national holiday,” tweeted Democrat politician Jamaal Bowman, getting over 155,100 retweets and more than 201,500 likes in response.

However, several states recognize the observance as a “ceremonial holiday” and major companies like Nike, Lyft, and Twitter have moved to make it a paid holiday.

“US presidents including Barack Obama and Donald Trump have made statements honoring Juneteenth, and the Senate passed a resolution in 2018 honoring the day,” The Guardian reported earlier this week.

“But moves to make Juneteenth a federal holiday have not been able to gain traction in Congress … federal holidays are politically difficult to get through Congress. It took 15 years of fighting from the Congressional Black Caucus to make Martin Luther King’s birthday a holiday.”