Here & Now

Juneteenth becomes a Federal Holiday

Zac Schultz:

Just yesterday President Joe Biden signed legislation making Juneteenth a national holiday. Officially Juneteenth is celebrated tomorrow June 19th which in 1865 was the date when federal troops arrived in Texas and let African-American slaves know the Emancipation Proclamation had freed all the slaves in Confederate States two years earlier. However slavery everywhere in the U.S. was not abolished until later that year when the 13th Amendment was ratified as a part of our Constitution. In Wisconsin this morning Governor Tony Evers gathered with other state officials to celebrate the new holiday and kick off weekend activities in Wisconsin. The Juneteenth flag was raised over the state Capitol.