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Juneteenth celebrations emphasize ending racial disparities

After Opal Lee led hundreds in a walk through her Texas hometown to celebrate Juneteenth, the 95-year-old Black woman who helped successfully push for the holiday to get national recognition said it's important that people learn the history behind it.

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Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, commemorates the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to order freedom for the enslaved people of the state — two months after the Confederacy had surrendered in the Civil War. "Great nations don't ignore their most painful moments," Biden said in a statement Sunday. "They confront them to grow stronger. And that is what this great nation must continue to do."