Juneteenth

Parades, Parties, Pageants and more will honor Juneteenth in Southern Illinois.

State government offices — including Secretary of State driver services facilities — will be closed Friday in observance of Juneteenth National Freedom Day after it was made both a state and federal holiday this week.

The day that marks the anniversary of the day in 1865 when some of the last enslaved Americans learned that they had been freed is now an official state holiday in Illinois.

Juneteenth celebrations are going on across the country today, marking the day the last U.S. slaves received word of their emancipation in 1865. WSIU’s…