In recognition of the newly appointed federal holiday and due the time difference between the United States and Korea, USFK will be observing Juneteenth on Monday, June 21, 2021 for all USFK civilians and military service members. Please refer to your local installation for additional information on possible closures due to the federal holiday.

Commemorated annually on June 19th, Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration of the end of slavery in the U.S. the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on Sep. 22, 1862, announced, "that on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any state…in rebellion against the U.S. shall be then, thenceforward and forever free." However, it would take the Civil War and passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to end the brutal institution of African American slavery.

On Thursday, June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed a bill establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday. Juneteenth National Independence Day will become the 12th legal public holiday and the first new one created since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.