Joe Biden signs Juneteenth bill, creating holiday to mark US slavery’s end

Washington: US President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris have signed a bill into law to make June 19 a federal holiday commemorating the end of the legal enslavement of black Americans.

The bill, which was passed overwhelmingly by the US House of Representatives the day before after a unanimous vote in the Senate, marks the day in 1865 when a Union general informed a group of enslaved people in Texas that they had been made free two years earlier by president Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War.

President Joe Biden signs the bill in the East Room of the White House.Credit: AP

“Juneteenth marks both a long hard night of slavery subjugation and a promise of a brighter morning to come,” Biden said. He said the day was a reminder of the “terrible toll that slavery took on the country and continues to take.”

He added: “Great nations don’t ignore their most painful moments ... they embrace them.”

Biden was speaking in a room filled with about 80 members of Congress, local elected officials, community leaders and activists such as Opal Lee.

The 94-year-old, sometimes called the “grandmother of Juneteenth”, is an activist and former teacher who grew up in Marshall and Fort Worth, Texas, and spent years advocating for Congress to enact the legislation.

In 2016, at the age of 89, she walked much of the 2200 kilometres between her home in Fort Worth, Texas, and Washington, DC, to raise awareness of Juneteenth. Each day in each city along the way, Lee walked 2½ miles (4 kilometres) to symbolise the 2½ years it took for enslaved people in Texas to be informed of Lincoln’s proclamation.

US President Joe Biden listens to 94-year-old activist Opal Lee after signing the Jbill. Credit: AP

She told The New York Times earlier this week that to fully celebrate the history of the United States and the concept of freedom, the country should hold a national celebration from June 19 through to July 4.

“I want people to realise that this is not a Texas thing and it’s not a black thing because none of us are free until we are all free and, heaven knows, we are not free yet,” she said.

After the signing, Lee told CNN affiliate station KTVT in Fort Worth: “I’ve got so many different feelings all gurgling up here – I don’t know what to call them all.” But she stressed there was still much work to do to beat racism. “We can have one America if we try,” she said.

Andrew Torget, a historian of 19th century North America at the University of North Texas, told USA Today the celebration was a testament to the will of the American people to honour the end of slavery.

“It’s important that we have a moment that is now becoming a national moment, not because of legislation, and not because anyone has decreed it. But because large swathes of the American public are embracing it,” Torget said.

At least two Wall Street firms responded immediately: JPMorgan Chase and UBS will allow the holiday or a floating day off, according to internal memos. The US Securities and Exchange Commission also said its offices would be closed on Friday.

Biden and his fellow Democrats are under pressure to respond to a slew of Republican-backed state bills that civil rights activists say aim to suppress voting by minorities, and to meaningfully address the disproportionate killing of black men by police.

“It’s important to commemorate emancipation and to encourage everyday Americans to reckon with the history of slavery ... but there is always a danger with these sorts of things so they can be performative,” said Matthew Delmont, a professor of history at Dartmouth College who specialises in African-American history and civil rights.

Designating Juneteenth a federal holiday would be a “failure” if it just acknowledged the date without spurring action on issues such as police brutality, voting rights and the racial wealth gap, Delmont said.

The law comes a year after the United States was rocked by protests against racism and policing following the murder of George Floyd, an African-American man, by a Minneapolis police officer.

Juneteenth will be the eleventh federally recognised holiday, joining a list that includes Christmas, New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving and Independence Day, as well as days honouring presidents and slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King jnr. Opponents of the holiday cited the high cost to the economy in payroll and holiday premium pay costs of yet another public holiday.

Inauguration day, when the US president is sworn in, is also a federal holiday every four years.

Federal employees will start taking the holiday off this year, observing it on Friday since Juneteenth falls on Saturday, the US Office of Personnel Management said on Twitter.

Reuters, staff writers