The City of Tulsa and Tulsa County announced that Juneteenth will be added as an official holiday starting next year.

Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum and the Board of County Commissioners made the decision Monday morning.

It means Juneteenth will be an additional paid holiday for City and County employees, including the Tulsa County District Court system.

“Juneteenth is an important day in our country’s history, and I’m glad we are able to celebrate freedom for all Americans in this way by joining Tulsa County in adding Juneteenth to our official holiday schedule,” Mayor G.T. Bynum said in a statement. “I’m thankful that our employees at the City will have the opportunity to appropriately observe Juneteenth in the years ahead.” 

Juneteenth commemorates the day the last slaves in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation announced the end of slavery in the United States.

President Joe Biden announced that Juneteenth would be observed as a federal holiday in June 2020.