Americans mark Juneteenth with parties, events and quiet reflection on the end of slavery

Rose St. John, 1, plays with the Juneteenth flag during a celebration at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington on Monday. Americans celebrated Juneteenth across the country over the long weekend, marking the relatively new national holiday with cookouts, parades and other gatherings as they commemorated the end of slavery after the Civil War. “Is #Juneteenth the only federal holiday that some states have banned the teaching of its history and significance?” author Michelle Duster asked on Twitter, referring to measures in Florida, Oklahoma and Alabama prohibiting an Advanced Placement African American studies course or the teaching of certain concepts of race and racism. Monday’s federal holiday commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed — two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued during the bloody Civil War. A full 70% of Black adults queried in an AP-NORC poll said “a lot” needs to be done to achieve equal treatment for African Americans in policing.