Federal offices are closed today in observance of the brand new federal holiday, Juneteenth.
The bill creating an eleventh paid holiday for federal workers was signed by President Biden yesterday at a White House ceremony attended by Fort Worth's Opal Lee, the 94-year-old woman who has spent decades advocating to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.
It's been a Texas state holiday for more than 40 years honoring the date of June 19th, 1865. That day, news reached slaves in Texas alerting them to the fact that the Civil War had ended two months earlier and that slavery had been abolished.
With tomorrow, June 19th being a Saturday, federal workers are observing the holiday with a day off today.
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