Illinois government officials scrambled late Thursday afternoon to move to holiday status on Friday after President Joe Biden signed a bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday.
Since June 19th falls on a Saturday this year, the federal holiday moves to Friday. Among the state offices closed are the Secretary of State’s Drivers License facilities.
However, county courthouses and city halls largely remain open as usual. The Post Office has announced they are still delivering mail as usual on Friday.
The announcement Thursday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to begin immediately celebrating the federal holiday superseded state law signed Wednesday by the governor that would have made June 19th a state holiday next year. Because the day falls on Sunday in 2022, the first paid state holiday would have occurred in 2023.
Juneteenth marks the 1865 date when the last enslaved Black people learned from Union soldiers in Texas that they were free. That was more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.
Juneteenth is the first federal holiday since the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was created in 1983.
