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What does Juneteenth mean to you? We want to hear your story

A Juneteenth flag flies on a float during the 45th annual Juneteenth National Independence Day celebrations in Galveston, Texas in 2024.
Mark Felix
/
AFP via Getty Images
A Juneteenth flag flies on a float during the 45th annual Juneteenth National Independence Day celebrations in Galveston, Texas in 2024.

Just four years ago, when the Biden administration declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the bill had sailed through Congress with very little opposition.

And on the heels of the Black Lives Matter movement, the holiday — also known as Jubilee Day, Freedom Day Liberation Day and Emancipation Day — became part of a wider nationwide movement of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across the government, academia and even in commerce.

Now, under President Trump many of those initiatives have been banned or rolled back.

NPR wants to know what it means to you to be celebrating the holiday at this moment in history.

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Vanessa Romo is a reporter for NPR's News Desk. She covers breaking news on a wide range of topics, weighing in daily on everything from immigration and the treatment of migrant children, to a war-crimes trial where a witness claimed he was the actual killer, to an alleged sex cult. She has also covered the occasional cat-clinging-to-the-hood-of-a-car story.
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