America moved one step closer last week to fully acknowledging the history and continuing impact of America's original sin: President Joe Biden on Thursday formally declared Juneteenth a federal holiday. While Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 is often credited with ending slavery, in reality, it took the remainder of the war (and beyond) to realize that document's goal. Juneteenth, long celebrated in America's Black communities, recognizes June 19, 1865, as the day Black slaves in Galveston, Texas, were finally informed by Union soldiers that the Civil War had ended months earlier, and that they were, in reality, free.

"We have come far and we have far to go, but today is a day of celebration," said Vice-President Kamala Harris, the first and only African-American to hold her office, herself a symbol of the progress America has made in the 155 years since the first Juneteenth celebration, in 1866.

The overwhelming bipartisan support for the creation of this new federal holiday — it passed 415-14 in the House and unanimously in the Senate — is also a testament to the progress and power of the Black Lives Matter movement and the racial reckoning that has influenced nearly every part of American culture in recent years. From protests in the streets to new progressive voices in politics to updated curriculums in public education, many Americans have become much more supportive of a more diverse and inclusive narrative of America's origin story.

The legalized buying and selling of human beings to work without pay, legal protections or basic rights was a foundational crime in the creation of this country and all its wealth. This is not just Black American history; this is American history. It's a history that generations of white Americans knew too little about. By making Juneteenth an annual federal holiday, Biden has provided the nation a moment each year to reflect on that history and its legacy that affects us today.

"This is a day of profound weight and profound power," Biden said at the signing ceremony. "A day in which we remember the moral stain, the terrible toll that slavery took on the country and continues to take." He aptly predicted that signing the historic legislation would go down as one of the greatest honors of his presidency.

While systemic racism and various forms of oppression continue to rob millions of Americans of their potential, America today is unquestionably better than it used to be. The federal Juneteenth holiday provides an opportunity to celebrate the nation's progress and renew its commitment to continue that progress.

America has changed and continues to change. Both in its origin and its bipartisan federal designation as an American holiday, Juneteenth is a day for all Americans to reflect on the nation we were and the nation we want to be.

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