Juneteenth

Day off? Extra pay? Or business as usual? Federal workers usually get holidays off, but the short notice on Juneteenth has created some exceptions. And companies aren't required to observe holidays.

Juneteenth is the country’s newest federal holiday. It celebrates the end of slavery in America.

"We can all finally celebrate. The whole country together," says Opal Lee, 94, who has been working for years to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.

To mark Juneteenth, NPR staff members read the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth — the celebration to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States — is now a federal holiday.

June 19 is a commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States, marking the day enslaved people in Texas were finally freed — more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

As part of an ongoing series, NPR's Rachel Martin talks to pianist Lara Downes about classical recordings of "Lift Every Voice" and "A Change Is Gonna Come," to mark Black Music Month and Juneteenth.

June 19, 1865, marked a huge turning point for black people in America.

The yes vote comes a day after the Senate unanimously moved to recognize June 19 as a commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States.

Companies are responding to a social movement fueled by the killing of George Floyd, a 47-year-old Black man who died on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis while in police custody.

The new bill -- which passed the Senate 39-0 -- requires 45 minutes of high school instruction on the victims of Communism and emancipation in Florida.