Special Report: Biden signs bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday

President Biden signed into law a bill creating a new federal holiday to honor Juneteenth, which celebrates the day enslaved Blacks in Texas learned they were free, June 19, 1865. That was more than two months after the Civil War ended and two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Chip Reid anchors a CBS News Special Report from Washington with a report from Nikole Killion at the White House.

[Dirge_For_November]

Shall we commemorate by counting the homicides currently in Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago, etc.?

[Nepthu]

This seems like an empty gesture with no real impact. She commemorates the end of slavery while saying slavery didn't end that day.

[jsis]

You are a fool if you think they did this for you and not themselves.

[aboowolak]

911 should be federal day and a day to remember

[James-yivk]

All the federal workers are jumping for joy. Another paid day off!

[SmokeyThaLion]

im just happy this makes the racist upset that kind of reaction warms my heart :)

[dinoferrante]

I'm about as Liberal as you can get, and while I respect the importance of this day, I think this is wrong. If we should be taking any day off, it should be election day.

[paulhickey]

Give me Lincoln and Washington's Birthdays back.

[yodieyuh]

That was fast.

How's Flint's water doing? How's Puerto Rico holding up?

[midwestsidehustles]

I find it incredibly ironic that a bill brought forth and signed off by Democrats celebrating something that Republicans did.

[davidhavel]

I think this is stupid. Make Election day a paid national holiday and force companies to give that day off. That would have an actual impact. This is just fluff.

[PtolemyXVII]

11:50 “great nations don’t ignore their most painful moments” how about Native American day? I think it’s time we should celebrate the first Americans of America

[whooelse]

Get ready for all the raciist memes to circulate online on & around juneteenth because yall know its coming.

[tenntitan]

Damn. Wish Biden could move that fast on things that ACTUALLY MATTER TO TODAY. How about the ECONOMY JOE

[cindychaney]

🙄OMG, One would think that there are way more pressing issues to address in this day and time! 😡

[kbobdonahue]

I'm so proud to share my birthday with a federal holiday as important as Juneteenth where the last of the slaves in Galveston, Texas were told they were free. I was born June 19, 1966, 101 years after the fact.

[gurgy]

December 6 is actual emancipation when the 13 th amendment was ratified.

[fatalcreek]

In the words of Morgan freeman: he found the concept of Black History Month to be “ridiculous” and maintained the way to get rid of racism was to “stop talking about it.

[patrickc]

There is no official holiday commemorating September 11. Keep that in mind.

[Prideoffreedom]

Another day to have more “peaceful protests”