What does Juneteenth celebrate?Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation Day, celebrates the end of slavery in the United States.(more)See all videos for this articleJuneteenth became a state holiday in Texas in 1980, and a number of other states subsequently followed suit. In 2021 Juneteenth was made a federal holiday (the first new federal holiday since was established in 1983), in part because of the awareness-raising actions of BLM and individual activists, such as (known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth”). At the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act signing ceremony, President Biden remarked: Juneteenth marks both the long, hard night of slavery and subjugation, and a promise of a brighter morning to come. This is a day of profound—in my view—profound weight and profound power. A day in which we remember the moral stain, the terrible toll that slavery took on the country and continues to take—what I’ve long called “America’s original sin.”…By making Juneteenth a federal holiday, all Americans can feel the power of this day, and learn from our history, and celebrate progress, and grapple with the distance we’ve come but the distance we have to travel. This article was most recently revised and updated by ., Juneteenth, officially Juneteenth National Independence Day, is a federal holiday in the United States. It is celebrated annually on June 19 to commemorate the ending of slavery in the United States., Juneteenth, holiday observed annually on June 19, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. A combination of the words June and nineteenth, the holiday, also called Freedom Day, has been celebrated since 1866 and is considered to be one of the oldest continuing African American holidays..