US marks slavery’s end on new 'Juneteenth' national holiday

With marches, music and speeches, Americans on June 19 celebrated "Juneteenth," the newly declared national holiday that marks the end of slavery and which comes a year after George Floyd's murder sparked anti-racism protests.

Hundreds of events were held across the country, from New York to Los Angeles, and most notably in Galveston, Texas, the symbolic heart of the Juneteenth commemoration.

For on June 19, 1865, it was in that Texas coastal area that the Union army - victorious after the bitterly fought Civil War - announced to African Americans that, even if some in Texas were trying to ignore it, enslaved people were now free.

Slavery was formally abolished in December 1865, with the adoption of the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but Juneteenth has remained the emblematic date marking the freeing of enslaved Americans.

This year's Juneteenth celebrations are all the more celebratory, coming just days after President Joe Biden signed legislation making June 19 a national holiday, and at a time when pandemic-imposed restrictions on public gatherings are steadily being eased.

"I feel wonderful, I feel proud, I feel a sense of accomplishment for the struggle," Sharonda Newby said at a rally in Galveston, where she grew up. "I feel like they've given us some momentum, some resilience to continue to push forward."

"It was a long time coming," said 68-year-old Cheryl Green, who was attending the unveiling in the New York City borough of Brooklyn of a bust of George Floyd, the Black man killed by a white policeman in Minneapolis in May 2020.

"It's good that people get to recognize what happened," said Green, an African-American resident of Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood. "Changes are being made slowly, but...