As Juneteenth approaches this weekend, organizers in Denver, which holds one of the largest celebrations in the country, are determined to make it a national holiday.
“If we could acknowledge [Juneteenth] one day a year…[that] slavery is a part of this country's history, it’s one day ... where we get to continue this conversation,” said Erica Wright, one of the organizers of Denver’s events.
Juneteenth commemorates the day when some people in the country learned that slavery had ended. While President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Wright said that it took a long time for word to spread.
“It was two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed, that ... news finally broke in Galveston, Texas, that people were free,” Wright said.
Juneteenth is already an official holiday in Denver, and most states, including Colorado, recognize it to some degree. But the federal government has yet to follow suit.
