The Michigan Senate voted 37 to one to add Juneteenth to the list of official state holidays in an effort to commemorate the end of slavery in the U.S. on June 19 each year. Senator Sylvia Santana, the measure’s sponsor, says the new proposal was about “making sure that we right the wrongs of the past.” Generally, on public holidays, state government offices, courts and banks are closed. In June 2021, President Joe Biden signed legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday.

      On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, and announced the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in that state were free by executive decree, according to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. Juneteenth has since been observed annually in various parts of the United States, often broadly celebrating African American culture.