1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect meaning that all enslaved people in the Confederate States were technically legally free, but because the Confederacy was not governed by the Union, they would not be free until the end of the Civil War.
“Juneteenth has now had a rebirth in terms of people focusing on it, celebrating it, wanting to know what it is and wanting to know what it signifies; and how it relates to this long arc of racial divide and progress, or not, in our country,” Stevenson told the Times.
But while it is a federal holiday, meaning federal employees will get the day off as they do for July Fourth, Christmas and Thanksgiving, state and local governments as well as private employers don’t have to give the day off to employees.
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