Joe Biden to attend Juneteenth celebration at historic AME church in Texas

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Joe Biden will be attending a Juneteenth celebration at a historic African Methodist Episcopal church in Galveston, Texas.

The former Democratic president's plans were confirmed by a person with knowledge of them but not authorized to discuss logistics publicly.

In 2021, Biden signed legislation that established Juneteenth as a federal holiday. The day marks the end of slavery by commemorating June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston.

The event Thursday will be held at the Reedy Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Galveston.

That church, the first and oldest operating AME church in the state, is one of the locations where an order announcing the end of slavery in Texas was announced on that day in 1865, according to the Galveston County Daily News.