PHOTO OF THE DAY: CLOSED

The Freeman Post Office is among the federal institutions across the country that are closed in observance of the inaugural Junetheenth, the new federal holiday that commemorates June 19, 1865, when it was announced in Galveston, Texas that slaves had been freed. June 19 was declared a federal holiday by the Senate on June 15, 2021 when lawmakers Senate lawmakers unanimously passed the Junteenth National Independence Day Act. It had previously cleared the U.S. House by a vote of 415 to 14.

Prior to the federal legislation, all individual states except South Dakota had declared June 19 a federal holiday starting with Texas in 1980. In the years that followed, other states followed suit. South Dakota’s recognition of Juneteenth as an annual state holiday came in February of 2022 — after the federal legislation had been passed.