Baker signs Juneteenth into law as official holiday

The Boston Herald reports:

Juneteenth, the day celebrating Black freedom from slavery, is now an official holiday in Massachusetts.

Gov. Charlie Baker signed the June 19 holiday into law on Friday as part of the $1.1 billion coronavirus spending bill he inked.

Baker wrote that this “establishes Juneteenth Independence Day as an annual state holiday on June 19 in order to recognize the continued need to ensure racial freedom and equality.”

The day celebrates the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when Union troops reached Galveston, Texas, freeing the Black residents who remained enslaved there more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

If you read this blog, you know that slavery didn't end until December 6, 1865 with the ratification of the 13th Amendment.