BURSTDENVER (KDVR) — Entrance fees to all 63 of the nation's national parks will be waived on Thursday as the National Park Service commemorates Juneteenth.
The day is known by many names — Black Independence Day, Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day — but the reason to celebrate it remains the same throughout: Commemoration of the day that the last African Americans learned they were no longer enslaved people.
President Abraham Lincoln had already signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which became official as of Jan. 1, 1863, but African-descended people in Galveston, Texas, learned of the proclamation years later on June 19, 1865 — when a Union general led soldiers into town with the news that the Civil War was over and enslaved people were free.
In light of the holiday, fees to enter all national parks in the U.S. will be waived.
Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021 with legislation signed by former President Biden.
“All Americans can feel the power of this day, and learn from our history,” said at the time.
It was the first new national holiday in nearly 40 years, the New York Times reported, since Martin Luther King's birthday became a holiday in 1983.