Juneteenth 2021 in Chicago
(Chicago Tribune Religion News)

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation making Juneteenth an official state holiday. The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, will make June 19 — National Freedom Day — a paid holiday for state workers and public school employees when it falls on a weekday. Because the day falls on a Sunday next year, the first paid holiday will be in 2023. Juneteenth memorializes June 19, 1865, the day Union soldiers told enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, that the Civil War was over and they were free.