The exception is Texas, where the holiday originated and where it is also known as Emancipation Day.

Most states where Juneteenth is a public holiday added it to their calendars in 2020 or later. The stock markets generally remain open, as do most retailers and other businesses, though these vary by federal holiday. Most federal offices are closed on federal holidays, along with most banks and the bond markets that trade in U.S. It is one of 11 official federal holidays – or 12 for federal workers in the District of Columbia and surrounding areas during presidential inauguration years – meaning that federal workers get a paid day off and there’s no mail delivery. It commemorates the day more than two months after the end of the Civil War – and more than two years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation – when enslaved Black Americans in Galveston, Texas, were informed of their freedom. Juneteenth is a combination of the words June and nineteenth. And in North Carolina, some state workers can choose to take a floating holiday on a day of “cultural, religious or personal significance,” including Juneteenth. In Pennsylvania, the day is designated as an “official annual observance” and a paid day off for state employees under the governor’s jurisdiction. Starting this year, California state employees can choose to take Juneteenth off in lieu of a personal holiday. and the states where Juneteenth is an official public holiday, other states give certain government workers the day off but haven’t declared Juneteenth a holiday at the state level. In Alabama and West Virginia, Juneteenth has been authorized as a state holiday for this year by a governor’s proclamation the holiday can become permanent in these states if their legislatures pass bills to make it so. In most of these states, Juneteenth is designated as a permanent state holiday and commemorated annually. The governors’ proclamations must be issued annually in the absence of permanent legislation. Legislatures in each state must pass a law for it to become a permanent official state holiday. Governors in Alabama and West Virginia authorized Juneteenth as a holiday for state workers this year, last year and in 2021. In Illinois, state workers get a paid holiday for Juneteenth only if it falls on a weekday. New Mexico’s Legislature added Juneteenth as an official state holiday in 2006, observed on the third Saturday of June it became a paid holiday for state workers for the first time in 2022. We supplemented those lists with an analysis of news reports about local observances of Juneteenth and, where relevant, state legislation. Our main sources for this analysis were state administrative, personnel and human resources websites, most of which post lists of official state holidays.

We focused on states that observe Juneteenth as an official public holiday – meaning state offices are closed and state workers get a paid day off. Pew Research Center took a look at how each state commemorates the day. Juneteenth is the newest federal holiday in the United States, and one that is celebrated differently across the states.

Columbus day 2021 post office