The United States House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday that would make Juneteenth (on June 19) or Freedom Day — the date that marks two and a half years later when enslaved African Americans in Texas learned of the Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas —a federal holiday, USA Today reported.
The Juneteenth National Independence Day Act moved through both the Senate and the House with rapid speed, leaving many in Black communities happy about the acknowledgment of this holiday (which has been celebrated and recognized anyway). The House passed the bill one day after the Senate did — it did stall in the upper chamber, according to the article.
Since it passed through Congress, the bill will be sent to President Joe Biden, just days before the Juneteenth holiday this Saturday, according to the article.
The legislation passed in the House 415-14 Wednesday evening, hugely on a bipartisan basis, per the article. Everyone who voted against it were Republicans. Cheers erupted from the House floor after its passage, according to the article.
GOP Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson told USA TODAY before voting against the legislation he didn’t support it because “we have enough federal holidays” and he didn’t think it rises to the level.”
“A lot of people already celebrate it” through their home states, he argued.
Today, 47 states and Washington, D.C., recognize Juneteenth as either a state holiday or ceremonial holiday.
Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Tina Smith, D-Minn., Cory Booker, D-N.J., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, led the legislation, and reintroduced the bill in February.
Markey said in the article the United States has previously “failed to acknowledge, address, come to grips with our nation’s original sin of slavery. We cannot ignore the toll that it took, and we cannot turn away.” The bill “acknowledges the pain and the suffering of generations of slaves and innocents.”
Jackson Lee added in the article that she sees a “racial divide crumbled, being crushed” under a “momentous vote that brings together people who understand the value of freedom. And that is what Juneteenth is all about.”
“Of course today is not enough, there’s so much more work left to be done, but this is an important day because it is a piece of pavement on that path towards justice,” Smith said in the article. “This is not a moment for complacency, this is a moment to rededicate ourselves to that work.”
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