US get new national holiday recognising end of slavery
A US national holiday commemorating the end of slavery is due to be signed into law by President Biden after it received overwhelming backing.
Representatives voted by 415-14 to make 19 June, known as Juneteenth, a federal holiday, while the Senate passed the bill unanimously.
Mr Biden is expected to add his signature at the White House on Thursday.
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Congress votes for holiday to mark end of slavery
The date marks the day in 1865 when a group of enslaved people in Galveston, Texas – which was in the pro-slavery Confederacy – finally found out they were free, nearly two years after President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Confederacy had surrendered two months before, ending the American Civil War.
President Lincoln signed the proclamation on 1 January 1863.
He won the November 1860 election on an anti-slavery platform before war broke out five months later.
During debate in the House, Democrat Sheila Jackson, from Texas, appeared beside a well-known black-and-white photograph showing a man’s back scarred from being whipped during slavery.
The new national holiday would “commemorate the end of chattel slavery, America’s original sin, and bring about celebration”, she said.
It follows a year of protests against racism following the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis.
Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation – saying all slaves should be freed – on 1 January 1863. Pic: AP
Juneteenth was officially declared a state holiday in Texas in 1980 and has since been recognised in most other states.
Republican representative Guy Reschenthaler said that making it a federal holiday would increase awareness.
It will “recognize the Americans who fought and died to end slavery”, he added.
It is the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Junior Day was created in 1983.
Representative Carolyn Maloney said she could not think of a “more important milestone to commemorate”.
Charlie Kirk has been posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump.
The USA’s highest civilian honour was received by the conservative activist’s widow, Erika, at the White House.
Mr Kirk, 31, was fatally shot on 10 September while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University.
He founded Turning Point USA and toured American university campuses, debating students about current affairs.
Erika Kirk at the White House. Pic: Reuters
Erika Kirk and Donald Trump. Pic: Reuters
Addressing those attending the ceremony in the White House rose garden, the US president said they were there to “honour and remember a fearless warrior for liberty” and a “beloved leader who galvanised the next generation”.
He said Mr Kirk’s name was being entered “forever into the eternal roster of true American heroes”.
Mr Trump described Charlie Kirk as an “American patriot of the deepest conviction, the finest quality and the highest calibre”.
He said his nation had been “robbed” of an “extraordinary champion”.
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Has Charlie Kirk become a MAGA ‘martyr’?
And Mr Trump said Mr Kirk was assassinated in the “prime of his life for boldly speaking the truth, for living his faith, and relentlessly fighting for a better and stronger America”.
The ceremony coincided with what would have been Mr Kirk’s 32nd birthday.
Mr Trump described Erika Kirk, now head of Turning Point USA, as someone who had “endured unspeakable hardship with unbelievable strength”.
Read more:
What do we know about Erika Kirk?
Charlie Kirk’s movement is growing in wake of his assassination
Charlie Kirk. File pic: AP
A 22-year-old man, Tyler Robinson, from the city of Washington in Utah has been charged with Mr Kirk’s murder. Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty.
At a memorial event held at a stadium in Arizona, Erika Kirk told an enormous crowd she forgave her husband’s killer.
“The answer to hate is not hate,” she said.
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