Juneteenth is now a state holiday in Nevada

Juneteenth is now a state holiday in Nevada after Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo signed Assembly Bill 140 into law on Thursday. The holiday allows many state employees to take the day off.

The measure passed 40 to 1 in the state Assembly and 19 to 2 in the state Senate.

"Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, and I'm proud that Nevada will now recognize this holiday on a state and federal level," Lombardo said in a statement provided by spokesperson Elizabeth Ray.

Juneteenth celebrates the day, June 19, 1865, when enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that ended slavery in the US.

President Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021.