On June 19, 1865, the Union Army arrived in Galveston, Texas. They announced all enslaved people were to be liberated, two years after Lincoln delivered his famous Emancipation Proclamation.

"Juneteenth," as the anniversary of that fateful announcement is now known, is the oldest Black holiday in the U.S. This week, President Joe Biden signed into law a bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday.

OPEIU joins in commemorating the 156th Juneteenth and honoring the lengthy struggle for freedom and liberation — a struggle still ongoing — by recommitting to confronting and dismantling the myriad systems and structures that disproportionately and arbitrarily impact Black people.