By Mike DeBonis, The Washington Post, June 16, 2021
Congress on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to establish Juneteenth as a federal holiday, elevating the day marking the end of slavery in Texas to a national commemoration of emancipation amid a larger reckoning about America’s turbulent history with racism.
The congressional fight to establish Juneteenth as a national holiday was, in comparison, a relatively rapid affair — approved Wednesday by the House on a 415 to 14 vote just a day after the bill establishing the holiday moved suddenly and unanimously through the Senate. The push to establish June 19 as a national holiday celebrating emancipation only gained serious traction last year, as the nation erupted in turmoil over the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer.
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