Utah Government

More states and businesses have made an effort to officially recognize the holiday since the nationwide protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox on Thursday signed a law to make Juneteenth National Freedom Day a state holiday, a day commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S.

Also known as June Nineteenth, the holiday marks the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Texas more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to tell remaining enslaved African Americans that the Civil War had ended and that they were free. The holiday has been celebrated by Black Americans since the late-19th century.