This Thursday marks 160 years since the origin of Juneteenth. Here's what to know about the holiday and why' it's celebrated.

It became a U.S. federal holiday in 2021, following the signing of a bill by former President Joe Biden. Long a regional holiday in the South, Juneteenth rose in prominence across the country following protests that swept the world in 2020 over the police killings of George Floyd,

It was 160 years ago that enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed — after Civil War's end and two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.