Juneteenth 2025: What to know about the federal holiday
This year, the holiday falls on a Thursday.
Here's all you need to know about the approaching celebration:
Juneteenth was signed into law as a federal holiday on June 17, 2021, by former President Biden. He was surrounded by civil rights activists including Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and Opal Lee.
Opal Lee is known as the 'Grandmother of Juneteenth,' after walking 2.5 miles each year to symbolize the two and a half years it took for news of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach Texas.
In 2016, at age 89, she walked from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., hoping to convince former President Obama to establish Juneteenth as a national holiday. Five years later, Biden completed the task and awarded Opal Lee with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her advocacy work.
The first Juneteenth celebration took place in 1866, one year after Granger's order. Some referenced the holiday as 'Jubilee Day' or 'Freedom Day' and gathered in homes, parks and communities to celebrate.
The holiday was first listed on the calendar of public events in 1872 with the help of the government's Freedmen's Bureau agency for newly freed Black people.
Later that year, a group of Black organizers in Texas pooled together $1,000 for the purchase of 10 acres now known as Houston's Emancipation Park, where Juneteenth celebrations are hosted to date.
The Freedmen's Bureau recently digitized its search portal for archives from 1865-1872 to allow family historians and genealogists to research the history of their ancestors in the United States.
On Juneteenth, the U.S. Postal Service, banks and the stock market will be closed.
Nonessential government employees will also be granted the day off from work.
Many people use the Juneteenth holiday as a time to reflect on the country's past. Cities and states across the country typically host educational programming to inform individuals of the 250,000 Blacks who gained their freedom in honor of the holiday.
Celebrations may include readings of former president Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, cook outs, festivals and Miss Juneteenth contests across the country.
Some may also sing the Black national anthem, 'Lift Every Voice and Sing.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Nvidia and AMD cut a chip revenue-sharing deal with Trump. Here's how their stock prices are reacting
In a historically unusual move, two of the world's largest chipmakers, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), have reportedly cut a deal with the Trump administration to hand over 15% of their revenues from certain chip sales to the U.S. government. Here's what to know about the deal and how Nvidia's and AMD's stock prices are reacting. No one has office friends anymore. Why that's bad news for employers New research shows why remarkably productive people don't work nearly as hard (or as fast) as you might think The leadership strategy that's more valuable than performance reviews What's happened? Yesterday, the Financial Times reported that chipmaking giants Nvidia and AMD have struck a highly unusual deal with the U.S. government. According to the Financial Times, the deal will see Nvidia and AMD give up 15% of revenues from chip sales of two specific chips to China, the H20 chipset by Nvidia and the MI308 chipset by AMD. In return for the 15% revenue-sharing agreement, the U.S. government has approved export licenses for those chips to China. Without export licenses, which the U.S. had previously failed to grant the companies, Nvidia and AMD could not legally export their chips to the country. The Financial Times cited 'people familiar with the situation, including a U.S. official' as the sources of the information. 'We follow rules the U.S. government sets for our participation in worldwide markets,' a Nvidia spokesperson told Fast Company when reached for comment. 'While we haven't shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide. America cannot repeat 5G and lose telecommunication leadership.' Fast Company has also reached out to AMD and the Commerce Department. The revenue-sharing agreement is an unusual one, as no other companies before now have ever agreed to share a portion of their revenue with the U.S. government in exchange for export licenses. The Trump administration has reportedly also not decided what the U.S. government will do with the proceeds it reaps from Nvidia and AMD's chip sales to China. A spokesperson for Nvidia did not deny the deal, with the company telling the Financial Times, 'We follow rules the US government sets for our participation in worldwide markets.' What are the H20 and MI308 chips? Before the two chip giants made a revenue-sharing deal with the Trump administration, the H20 and MI308 chipsets had been waiting for months for export license approvals. The H20 chip by Nvidia and the MI308 chip by AMD were designed by the companies for the Chinese marketplace specifically, and within the constraints that the Biden administration had placed on exporting U.S. chips to China. But when Trump came into office earlier this year, his administration placed export controls on those chips over national security fears. Nvidia has previously disputed that its H20 chips could give Chinese industry a leg up in the AI race. Now, however, any supposed national security concerns are taking a back seat to profits, as the export licenses have now been granted after the revenue-sharing deal was agreed. That revenue-sharing agreement stands to see the U.S. government rake in billions as the chipmakers now have the go-ahead to sell to China. According to the Financial Times, one estimate noted that Nvidia could sell as much as $23 billion worth of its H20 chips to China in 2025 alone. How are Nvidia and AMD stock reacting? Obtaining export licenses for chips is usually considered a good thing by investors in any chipmaking company. However, after the Financial Times broke the news of the revenue sharing deal, shares of both Nvidia Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (Nasdaq: AMD) are down in premarket trading as of the time of this writing. NVDA shares are currently down about 0.71% and AMD shares are currently down about 1.6%. While these share price drops aren't that large, any decline in a chipmaker's stock price after winning an export license is pretty rare. This could suggest that investors are concerned that companies are ceding too much revenue to the U.S. government in exchange for export licenses, potentially harming their bottom lines. But just as likely is that investors aren't entirely sure how to digest the news. The deal potentially sets a new precedent where companies that need export licenses now may need to start sharing their revenue directly with the U.S. government. Such a system is unheard of in free-market democracies. This post originally appeared at to get the Fast Company newsletter: Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The move would appeal to Trump's MAGA base.
An ex-DOGE staffer known as 'Big Balls' could end up receiving the highest civilian honor in the United States, placing him in the company of luminaries such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa. Two weeks after 19-year-old Edward Coristine was viciously assaulted during a carjacking in Washington D.C., the White House says it would consider giving the administration official a Presidential Medal of Freedom for his bravery. The issue was raised during a White House briefing in which press secretary Karoline Leavitt invited MAGA pundit Benny Johnson to ask the first question, as has become customary under the new administration.
San Francisco Chronicle
42 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. nonprofit embroiled in Dream Keeper scandal warns of ‘complete shutdown'
San Francisco's efforts to cut off a nonprofit from city funding for allegedly bribing a former city official is threatening the future of the organization's programs for needy kids and their families in the Western Addition. Attorneys for Collective Impact, the nonprofit embroiled in a scandal over its close ties to former San Francisco Human Rights Commission Executive Director Sheryl Davis, said in a legal filing Monday that the organization 'anticipates a complete shutdown of its programs by October.' The attorneys were arguing against an attempt by City Attorney David Chiu to prohibit Collective Impact from receiving city funding for five years. Chiu is seeking to debar Collective Impact after a joint investigation by his office and the controller found that the nonprofit had spent thousands on college tuition for Davis' son, paid for Davis to upgrade her flights to first class and covered costs related to her personal ventures — all while receiving millions from her department. If Chiu succeeds in debarring Collective Impact, the nonprofit would have to end its summer and afterschool programs and close the doors of its three-decade-old Ella Hill Hutch Community Center, its attorneys Lauren Kramer Sujeeth and Si Eun Amber Lee wrote. The nonprofit would no longer be able to provide families with healthy food or help paying their bills. 'The disproportionate effect of poverty will once again come to Western Addition,' the attorneys argued. 'Put plainly, without Collective Impact, the community will suffer in ways that the city is simply not prepared to handle.' Davis, who was close friends with former Mayor London Breed, resigned last September amid intense scrutiny over her management of the Dream Keeper Initiative, Breed's mission to reinvest $60 million a year in San Francisco's dwindling and underserved Black community. Among the revelations was that Davis shared a home with James Spingola, executive director of Collective Impact. She also previously led the nonprofit. Neither Davis nor Spingola have been charged with crimes. Collective Impact was a major recipient of city funding. The organization has received more than $27 million in city grants since 2021, according to the city attorney's office. Under Davis, the human rights commission awarded Collective Impact more than $6 million between December 2019 and May 2024, the office said. The organization reported revenue of $8.3 million in the fiscal year ending in June 2024, according to its Form 990 filing, shortly before the Dream Keeper scandal broke. The nonprofit had almost $6.3 million in net assets. But the city froze Dream Keeper funding amid budget constraints and intense public scrutiny last September, and the city attorney halted all funding to Collective Impact in March as a result of its joint investigation with the controller. Attorneys for Collective Impact said the organization has since spent roughly $2 million in private funding to 'keep alive previously grant-supported programs, preventing the roughly 125 summer program students from suddenly having nowhere to go.' Attorneys for both Collective Impact and the City Attorney's Office made arguments in legal filings Monday ahead of a hearing next week on the proposed debarment. In its filing, the city attorney argued that some of the payments by Collective Impact constituted bribes and demonstrated 'corrupt intent.' 'Whether Collective Impact's payments benefitting Davis are characterized as illegal gifts, kickbacks, or bribes, Spingola knew that he was living with Davis, never disclosed their relationship and continued to direct City funds for Davis' benefit,' the office wrote. "What are they going to do without us?" he said. Asked about the allegations, Spingola said, 'I haven't bribed anyone.' 'How do you bribe somebody?' he said. 'I don't know what bribing is.' The debarment hearing is scheduled to begin Monday.
