Demonstrators planned rallies in towns and cities across the country, from Atlanta to Los Angeles, to commemorate the date that the U.S. informed people in Texas that all those enslaved were now free in 1865.
Hope that social justice will occur in this country and will occur soon," Stephen Holmes, county commissioner in Galveston, Texas, told attendees at a Juneteenth celebration in that city.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday that Juneteenth would become a city and school holiday beginning next year, as did the mayor of Louisville, Ky., which has been struggling with the fallout from Taylor's killing.
And a movement to designate it a federal holiday has been gathering momentum after several high-profile police killings of Black people trained widespread attention on racial injustice in the United States.
"We are especially encouraged by the steps taken to remove their portraits on the eve of Juneteenth — the day that will forever commemorate the emancipation of Black people from enslavement," Lecia Brooks of the Southern Poverty Law Center said in a statement shared with NPR.
