Americans will celebrate Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, on Thursday with parades and parties. Juneteenth became the newest U.S. federal holiday in 2021, but it has held significance for many Black Americans for a long time.

This came roughly two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The order outlawed slavery in all the Confederate states. In 2021, Joe Biden announced Juneteenth to be marked as a federal holiday.