Juneteenth, a portmanteau of June and 19th, is also known as Emancipation Day. It commemorates the day in 1865, after the Confederate states surrendered to end the Civil War, when a Union general arrived in Texas to inform a group of enslaved African Americans of their freedom under President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.

In 1980, Texas officially declared it a holiday. By June 2021, it was recognized in 48 other states and the District of Columbia. Rules regarding holidays and days of observance vary from state to state, according to the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation, which campaigned for years for Juneteenth to reach federal holiday status.

These states observe it as a paid holiday: Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington state. Ohio announced Thursday that it, too, would give state employees a paid day off on Friday.

Although in part a celebration, the day is observed solemnly to honor those who suffered during slavery in the United States with the arrival of the first captive Africans over 400 years ago.

Juneteenth, long a regional holiday in the U.S. South, was given a national spotlight following protests in 2020 over police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and other African Americans. Source: Reuters