Short for "June Nineteenth," it marks the day in 1865 when federal troops arrived in Texas, freeing all enslaved people by enforcing Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. The oldest longstanding African-American holiday, it was designated as a federal holiday by Congress on Wednesday. The City of South Miami had declared it a paid holiday in May after Miami-Dade County did the same last October.
The holiday was largely unobserved by most companies until 2020, when George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was murdered by police in Minneapolis.
Whether you decide to go to an art gallery or a drive-in movie, here are the best places reflect on this momentous day in our nation's history on Saturday.