Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, echoed that message the same day and tied in the issue of D.C. statehood, saying \"color me skeptical,\" when asked about Congress taking such swift action on the national holiday while, she said, failing to address other policy issues.
\"Because I don't want anybody,\" she said, \"to think that it relieves them of their obligation to protect voting rights in this country, which are under attack. D.C. statehood is a voting rights issue is a civil rights issue of our time.\"
Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, and other advocates, point to passing legislation like H.R. 40, a bill that specifically calls for the creation of a commission to study reparations, as a way to fulfill that promise. It passed out of House committee for the first time earlier this year, but is still waiting a full floor vote.
\"Now that we've gotten the recognition, we can build off that momentum for reparations,\" said Deborah Evans, communications director with the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation.
There's also the glaring absence, Evans said, of national policing reform more than a year after the killing of George Floyd -- which helped elevate Juneteenth as a national holiday. Companies, including Nike and Twitter, signed on to make Juneteenth a paid day off for the first time last year during what was called a nationwide reckoning on race.
An opportunity to educate all Americans
Beyond policy, advocates hope Juneteenth's new distinction is an opportunity to educate -- and celebrate.
Anthony Brown, a social studies professor who teaches on race matters at the University of Texas, said 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 so that people can connect freedom in 1865 to freedom in 2021.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/juneteenth-atlanta-gty-jc-210615_1623797667446_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Joe Raedle/Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: People pray together during a Juneteenth event at Centennial Olympic Park on June 19, 2020, in Atlanta.
\"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 told ABC News. \"I think it's a tremendous opportunity for unity. To not know its full history would be a travesty. And nothing good comes from when you don't know your neighbor.\"
Evans, who fought for three decades to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, also said it allows a chance to go back and correct history. She said her attention now is to research and educate others on the real history of Juneteenth -- like that 9,000 Black Union troops helped free the final 250,000 slaves in Galveston, she said, to which Berry agreed, though their stories are often forgotten.
\"We want 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,\" she said
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/juneteenth-celebration-pittsburgh-ap-jt-210619_1624048115924_hpEmbed_3x2_384.jpg\")
Sarah Simpson/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP
PHOTO: Members of the Sankofa Dance & Drum Team perform at Point State Park for the Western Pennsylvania Juneteenth Celebration on June 18, 2021, in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Berry also emphasized that in the earliest celebrations of Juneteenth, education was essential to the festivities -- and suggested that stay central to celebrations moving forward.
\"While people are celebrating different foods, I just hope that the moment of reflection is also part of this holiday,\" she said. \"It was always about education and making sure that everybody understood what they had experienced during slavery. So this is a moment for us to celebrate freedom, but also to understand and recognize the history.\"
She said, as did most advocates, that Juneteenth becoming a holiday doesn't erase racial disparities in the U.S., but allows a better opportunity to address them.
\"It doesn't mean that this settles everything and it doesn't mean that we don't have issues to still address, it does. We have disparities,\" Berry said. \"But by bringing this to a federal holiday, to celebrate freedom, allows us an opportunity to address the disparities and inequalities that we have that are still resonant in this country.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/juneteenth-flag-wisconsin-ap-jt-210618_1624047853641_hpEmbed_3x4_384.jpg\")
Scott Bauer/AP
PHOTO: The flag marking the Juneteenth holiday flies over the Wisconsin state Capitol after being raised on June 18, 2021, in Madison, Wis.
