Today, Thursday, June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed into law the new federal holiday of Juneteenth National Independence Day, following similar legislation last year by N.J. Governor Phil Murphy. As a result, Mercer County this year will recognize Juneteenth Day as an official county holiday on Friday, June 18, 2021 and grants the day off for Mercer County employees. 

Juneteenth marks our country’s second Independence Day, the day commemorating the emancipation of all slaves in America.  It’s a day to remember June 19, 1865 — when Union soldiers brought news of the Emancipation Proclamation to enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, and declared that all people held in slavery in the U.S. must be freed. They were the last slaves to learn of their freedom. The event happened more than two months after the end of the Civil War, marked by the Confederate Army’s surrender, and more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

We have a ways to go before we see equality and justice for all, and I encourage all of us in Mercer County to use this day to contribute to our communities, commit to inclusion, and to learn more about addressing racial inequity.