\"By making Juneteenth a federal holiday, all Americans can feel the power of this day and learn from our history and celebrate progress and grapple with the distance we’ve come but the distance we have to travel,\" Biden continued.
The president then turned political, raising what he called the \"assault\" on voting rights.
\"You see this assault from restrictive laws, threats of intimidation, voter purges and more,\" Biden said. \"We can't rest until the promise of equality is fulfilled for everyone in every corner of this nation. That to me is the meaning of Juneteenth.\"
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Carlos Barria/Reuters
PHOTO: President Joe Biden is applauded as he reaches for a pen to sign the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law as Vice President Kamala Harris stands by in the East Room of the White House June 17, 2021.
Ultimately, he said Juneteenth \"doesn't just celebrate the past -- it calls for action today.\"
The federal government said most employees will be off this Friday to mark the occasion, around which celebrations have become more mainstream in recent years, taking on added significance in 2020 when the country went through a racial reckoning after the killing of George Floyd.
Earlier Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrats in the Congressional Black Caucus held bill enrollment ceremony to highlight the victory.
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Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
PHOTO: Vice President Kamala Harris watches as Opal Lee (2nd L), the activist known as the grandmother of Juneteenth, is given a pen after President Joe Biden signs the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, in the White House, June 17, 2021.
\"This is an important step for America,\" she said.
Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., the highest-ranking Black lawmaker, thanked colleagues for their \"tremendous effort on behalf of an issue that has taken more than a century and a half.\"
The group then sang the hymn \"Lift Every Voice and Sing,\" what's called the Black National Anthem, to close the ceremony.
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J. Scott Applewhite/AP
PHOTO: James Clyburn, Nancy Pelosi, Reps. Al Green, Sheila Jackson Lee, Joyce Beatty, Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee and Congressional Black Caucus members celebrate the passage of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, June 17, 2021 in Washington.
Advocates say Juneteenth -- also known as Freedom Day, Liberation Day and Emancipation Day -- offers a day to reflect on slavery's terrible stain on American history and for celebrations that look similar to those on the Fourth of July.
It's celebrated on June 19 to mark the day in 1865 when African American slaves in Galveston, Texas, were among the last to be told they had been freed -- a full two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation outlawed slavery in the Confederacy and two months after the Civil War officially ended.
Deborah Evans, secretary and director of communications with the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation, praised the bill becoming law to ABC News on Thursday.
\"Finally!\" she said. \"We are no longer the orphan event.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/congress-juneteenth-01-ap-iwb-210617_1623940258749_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
PHOTO: James Clyburn, Nancy Pelosi, Reps. Al Green, Sheila Jackson Lee, Joyce Beatty, Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee and Congressional Black Caucus members celebrate the passage of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, June 17, 2021 in Washington.
Echoing Democratic lawmakers, she said it paves the way for other routes to help heal the wounds of slavery.
“Now that we've gotten the recognition, we can build off that momentum for reparations,\" she said. She also highlighted the importance of teaching the history of the holiday \"to train not only the children, but we've got to go back and train the children's first teachers, their parents, because many do not know about Juneteenth.\"
Though advocates have long worked to make Juneteenth a national holiday, even succeeding at the state level everywhere but South Dakota, it took Congress just two days to pass the legislation once one Republican senator, Sen. Ron Johnson, who blocked the move last year, dropped his opposition.
The bill then passed the Senate by unanimous consent on Wednesday before passing the House Thursday night in a 415-14 vote, with all opposition coming from GOP members.
Juneteenth is the first new holiday created by Congress in nearly 40 years, when lawmakers in 1983 designated Martin Luther King Jr. Day as the third Monday in January to memorialize the assassinated civil rights leader.
Ahead of Biden's signing, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management said on Twitter that \"most federal employees will observe the holiday tomorrow, June 18th\" since it falls on a weekend.
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Joe Raedle/Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: People pray together during a Juneteenth event at Centennial Olympic Park on June 19, 2020, in Atlanta.
Under political pressure, former President Donald Trump rescheduled a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 19, 2020, after he was criticized as culturally insensitive for scheduling the rally on the holiday and near the site of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Trump said he moved the rally, \"out of respect\" for the occasion.
Anthony Brown, a social studies professor who teaches on race matters at the University of Texas, told ABC News he hopes Juneteenth being recognized as a national holiday will provide a platform for teachers and community educators to have a space to discuss the history, as well give the opportunity to unify groups at a neighbor-to-neighbor level.
\"If you took a picture of what kinds of things we do as Americans during the Fourth of July, you'll see the same kinds of activities at a Juneteenth celebration,\" he said. \"I do hope with Juneteenth there's also going to be a significant amount of historical context and remembering of the expression of freedom that took in place in Galveston, Texas, in 1865.”
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/capitol-dome-gty-jc-210615_1623797667436_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: The U.S. Capitol dome is seen behind the American flags at the base of the Washington Monument in Washington, March 29, 2021.
