“I want people to realise that this is not a Texas thing and it’s not a black thing because none of us are free until we are all free and,heaven knows,we are not free yet,” she said.
After the signing,Lee told CNN affiliate station KTVT in Fort Worth:“I’ve got so many different feelings all gurgling up here – I don’t know what to call them all.” But she stressed there was still much work to do to beat racism. “We can have one America if we try,” she said.
Andrew Torget,a historian of 19th century North America at the University of North Texas,toldUSA Today the celebration was a testament to the will of the American people to honour the end of slavery.
“It’s important that we have a moment that is now becoming a national moment,not because of legislation,and not because anyone has decreed it. But because large swathes of the American public are embracing it,” Torget said.
At least two Wall Street firms responded immediately:JPMorgan Chase and UBS will allow the holiday or a floating day off,according to internal memos. The US Securities and Exchange Commission also said its offices would be closed on Friday.
Biden and his fellow Democrats are under pressure to respond to a slew of Republican-backed state bills that civil rights activists say aim to suppress voting by minorities,and to meaningfully address the disproportionate killing of black men by police.
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“It’s important to commemorate emancipation and to encourage everyday Americans to reckon with the history of slavery ... but there is always a danger with these sorts of things so they can be performative,” said Matthew Delmont,a professor of history at Dartmouth College who specialises in African-American history and civil rights.
Designating Juneteenth a federal holiday would be a “failure” if it just acknowledged the date without spurring action on issues such as police brutality,voting rights and the racial wealth gap,Delmont said.
The law comes a year after the United States was rocked by protests against racism and policingfollowing the murder of George Floyd,an African-American man,by a Minneapolis police officer.
Juneteenth will be the eleventh federally recognised holiday,joining a list that includes Christmas,New Year’s Day,Thanksgiving and Independence Day,as well as days honouring presidents and slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King jnr. Opponents of the holiday cited the high cost to the economy in payroll and holiday premium pay costs of yet another public holiday.
Inauguration day,when the US president is sworn in,is also a federal holiday every four years.
Federal employees will start taking the holiday off this year,observing it on Friday since Juneteenth falls on Saturday,the US Office of Personnel Management said on Twitter.