On Thursday, June 17, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, making Juneteenth the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Day was declared a federal holiday 38 years ago, according to CNET.
"Today is a momentous time in history, as Congress voted to make Juneteenth a national holiday," Stephanie Kennedy, director of Republican Party of New Mexico’s (RPNM) Communities of Color Christian Conservative Group, said in a statement last week. "Juneteenth gives rise to the emancipation of enslaved people in Texas on June 19, 1865, and, more broadly, to the end of slavery in our nation."
Several New Mexico legislators have praised Biden's recognition of Juneteenth on Twitter, including Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
"Glad to see this historic and deeply meaningful day officially commemorated nationwide," Grisham wrote in a June 17 Twitter post. "Juneteenth has been a New Mexico state holiday since 2006, commemorated on the third Saturday of June every year."
Also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, Juneteenth recognizes of the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform the last American slave owners that the Civil War had ended and slaves were to be set free, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior.
"The Republican Party has always stood for freedom and equality for all," Kennedy continued in her statement. "This holiday will commemorate an important part of our history, and with the growing social unrest in American society, it also marks a time for realizing that we all are people of color. Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
The City of Albuquerque held a weekend-long Juneteenth celebration on June 18-19 at the Civic Plaza on Twitter.