Mayor Garcetti signs proclamation making Juneteenth a paid holiday for city employees

Mayor Eric Garcetti Monday signed a proclamation making Juneteenth a paid holiday for Los Angeles city employees.

Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery on June 19.

"We want every child to know what Juneteenth commemorates. The day -- June 19, 1865 -- in which a Union general arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform the last African Americans still held in bondage in this nation that they were free and the Civil War was over," Garcetti said Monday.

In August 2020, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to initiate the process of making Juneteenth an official city holiday to celebrate the end of slavery in the United States. 

Juneteenth was recognized as an official federal holiday in 2021.