Harris celebrates signing of Juneteenth Day bill

Vice President Kamala Harris celebrated on Thursday the establishment of a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery.

Introducing the president, Harris said there is significance in declaring a national holiday.

"These are days when we, as a nation, have decided to stop and take stock and often to acknowledge our history," she said.

"We are gathered here in a house built by enslaved people," Harris said, speaking in the White House's East Room.

"We are footsteps away from where President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and we are here to witness President Joe Biden established Juneteenth as a national holiday."

Harris recognized civil rights activist Opal Lee in the audience and Biden went down on one knee to pay his respects.

Campaigning for decades to get recognition for a national holiday, Lee is considered by many as the 'Grandmother of Juneteenth.'

Biden signed into law a bill to make Juneteenth, or June 19, the 12th federal holiday.

The House voted 415-14 on Wednesday to send the bill to Biden, while the Senate passed the bill unanimously the day before.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas — two months after the Confederacy had surrendered.

That was also about 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Southern states.

It’s the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created in 1983.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which is the human resources office for the federal government, tweeted Thursday that most federal employees will observe the new holiday — Juneteenth National Independence Day — on Friday since June 19 falls on a Saturday this year.

The Senate passed the bill on Tuesday under a unanimous consent agreement that expedites the process for considering legislation.

It takes just one senator’s objection to block such agreements.

The vast majority of states recognize Juneteenth as a holiday or have an official observance of the day, and most states hold celebrations. Juneteenth is a paid holiday for state employees in Texas, New York, Virginia and Washington.

IMAGE: AP