Amid a nationwide reckoning on race and inequality that occurred after George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in 2020, Juneteenth was officially established as a federal holiday in June 2021.
The day, whose name is derived from combining “June Nineteenth,” marks the effective end of slavery in the United States. While the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in January 1863, the day marks when the last enslaved people learned of their freedom when federal troops stormed one of the last bastions of Confederate control in Galveston, Texas.
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Since 2021, all federal employees have the day off to mark the occasion. As part of its own efforts to recognize Juneteenth, the National Park Service (NPS) just announced that it will be waiving the entry fees to the country’s national parks for the first time.
Come to national parks for free this Juneteenth, says NPS
While not each of the country’s 63 national parks has entry fees, the NPS picks several dates each year on which it waives it at parks that do have them (this is often a $30-$40 fee per vehicle and $15-$20 per on-foot visitor). Other free days announced for the rest of 2024 include Great American Outdoors Day on August 4th, National Public Lands Day on September 28th and Veterans Day on November 11.
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The latter three are common dates for free national park entry while the fee is being waived for Juneteenth for the first time. Earlier this week, the NPS also marked the start of National Park Week with a free day on April 20.
“The entrance fee-free days expand opportunities for people to visit their national parks and experience the beauty and history of our country,” NPS Service Director Chuck Sams said in a statement.
These Juneteenth celebrations and events are happening at different parks
Specific commemorative events include an African drumming ceremony starting at 11 a.m. on Wednesday at Castle Clinton National Monument at Manhattan’s Battery Park (the waived entry fee also applies to the much larger number of national park sites across the state) and a parade through Virginia’s Prince William Forest Park. In most parks, there will be no noticeable events but rather simply be a day in which visitors can enjoy nature without the additional expense.
“Juneteenth continues to be celebrated in cities with Black populations through a series of parades, family reunions, speeches, and consuming of specific foods with a red color including barbeque, watermelon (an African fruit), and ‘red soda water’ (primarily strawberry soda),” the NPS writes of Juneteenth. “The use of the color red in ceremonies is a practice that enslaved West Africans brought to the United States.”
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Other organizations that will be closed on June 19th include the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq as well as government offices, post offices and most banks that follow the Federal Reserve’s calendar.
Approximately half of the states recognize Juneteenth as an official holiday so state workers in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, Tennessee and Virginia are among those who get the day off while those in Montana, Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas do not (a full list of states that recognize it can be found here).
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