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After a vote by port commissioners, Juneteenth is a holiday for Houston Port workers, joining in celebrating the liberation of Texas' enslaved population.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Houston) wrote the bill that helped make the federal holiday happen, which the state Senate later passed.
“The freedom of all Americans that Texas celebrates every Juneteenth should be celebrated all across the nation,” Cornyn said in a release. “The passage of this bill represents a big step in our nation’s journey toward equality."
Then, President Joe Biden signed the bill, making the 12th federal holiday into law.
“I hope this is the beginning of a change in the way we deal with one another,” Biden said when he signed the bill according to the Houston Daily.
Lee told the Texas Tribune the bill had over 160 cosponsors and wide bipartisan support.
"It's long overdue to be recognized as a federal holiday," said Rep. Randy Weber (D-Texas) in the Tribune when the bill first became a federal holiday.
Texas was the first state to make Juneteenth a holiday on Jan. 1, 1980. That happened 114 years after Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston to tell slaves they were free.
"The long-delayed emancipation of slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865, is a momentous occasion to celebrate and observe as Emancipation Day," Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in the Houston Daily.
The Houston Port has a lot to its name as its the largest port on the Gulf Coast and the biggest port in Texas. It's home to approximately 200 private and public industrial terminals along the 52-mile-long Houston Ship Channel.
Recently, the port started a new diversity initiative. The goal is to increase the minority and women-owned businesses that enter into contracts with the port.
“The commitment is there, and we are very much looking forward to success in this,” Port of Houston Executive Director Roger Gunther said in Community Impact Newspaper.