Hawai'i has become the second to last state in the nation that will officially recognize Juneteenth, which is observed annually on June 19.
Gov. David Ige signed a bill on Wednesday, June 16, to officially recognize Juneteenth as an official day of remembrance.
"Earlier today I signed several bills into law, including one that recognizes Juneteenth in Hawaiʻi and commemorates the end of African-American enslavement in the United States," Ige wrote in a Facebook post. "Thank you to everyone who helped make these bills happen."
Ige signed his bill one day after the U.S. Senate unanimously voted to pass a bill to recognize June 19 as a federal holiday, Hawai'i News Now reported. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on Thursday, June 17, according to CNN.
"By recognizing Juneteenth, I think we’re taking a small step toward ending racial disparity here in Hawaii,” Samantha Neyland, founder of Hawai'i for Juneteenth, said according to Hawai'i News Now.
Historically, on June 19, 1865, two years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, a Union Army major general announced in Galveston, Texas, that all slaves were free. Neyland said it is on that day that all Americans became truly free in the United States.
In commemoration of Juneteenth, a ceremony was scheduled for today at Kapiolani Park and another will be held this afternoon at Manoa Valley Theatre.