FRANKFORT, Ky. (WMDJ) – Gov. Andy Beshear signed an order in May designating Juneteenth as an executive branch holiday in recognition of the horrors of slavery and the many contributions of Black Americans.

The order closes all executive branch offices on the holiday beginning this year on Wednesday, June 19th.

Juneteenth celebrates the day in 1865 that Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to bring news that the Civil War had ended and that all enslaved Black Americans were free and entitled to equal rights.

Gov. Beshear signed the executive order after Kentucky’s Republican-controlled Legislature failed to act on the measures earlier this year.