Sounds of music, laughter and joy abounded at Berkeley’s 36th Juneteenth Festival on Sunday. The festival commemorates June 19, 1865 the day the last of American enslaved people were declared free in Galveston, Texas, more than two years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.
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Mayor Garcetti’s signing is one among many commemorations of Juneteenth nationwide as a growing number of states and municipalities officially honor the historic holiday long celebrated in African American communities across the United States. “We need every Angeleno to learn the full story of our past, no matter the ugliness of some of its chapters, and that means recognizing the lasting legacy of slavery in our country,” Garcetti said at the signing ceremony.
On June 6, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti signed a proclamation making Juneteenth an official holiday for city employees.
Although President Joe Biden signed a bill declaring Juneteenth a federal holiday last year,