Juneteenth, marking end of slavery, celebrated across US

Parades, picnics and history were all around on Saturday to commemorate Juneteenth in the US, a day that carried even more significance after Congress and President Joe Biden recognised the annual commemoration of the effective end of slavery as a federal holiday. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Texas two months after the Confederacy had surrendered. It was about two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in Southern states, on paper at least. Biden on Thursday signed a bill creating Juneteenth National Independence Day.