Juneteenth grows as a state holiday and paid day off

Two years after Juneteenth became the 11th federal holiday, more companies are giving their employees the day off and a growing number of states are recognizing it as a public holiday.

Driving the news: At least 28 states and Washington, D.C. are legally recognizing Juneteenth — a day celebrating Black emancipation from enslavement — as a public holiday this year with government offices closed, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.

Other states commemorate Juneteenth as a day of observance and cities across the country have also declared it an official paid holiday.

Context: Juneteenth recognizes the day in 1865 when enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free, which came more than two months after the Civil War ended.

Attempts to make Juneteenth into a holiday like Memorial Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day gained traction in 2020 amid discussions of racial injustice following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.