Juneteenth: What is the newest US holiday and how is it celebrated?

The Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, which establishes a holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the US, has been signed by President Joe Biden.

So what is Juneteenth, how did it become a holiday and what do people do to celebrate it?

On 19 June 1865 - months after the northern US states defeated the South in a civil war fought over slavery - enslaved African-Americans in Galveston, Texas, were told they were free.

The liberation of enslaved people in Texas came more than two and half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, releasing more than 3.5 million from forced bondage.

The declaration by General Grainger to bring the Emancipation Proclamation into effect in Texas is seen by many as the end of slavery as it finally brought the practice to an end in the last state still holding the enslaved.

Already 49 states and Washington DC formally recognise Juneteenth as a state or ceremonial holiday.

When he was senator of Illinois, Barack Obama co-sponsored legislation to make Juneteenth a national holiday, but the law was never passed - even after he became president.

Governors in some states, including New York and Virginia, have also declared it a holiday for state employees.

The effort to have Juneteenth declared a federal holiday was decades in the making.

In 2016, 89-year-old Opal Lee walked from Texas - where Juneteenth has been a state holiday since 1980 - to Washington DC in an effort to encourage lawmakers.

She walked 2.5 miles (4km) each day - representing the two and a half years that it took for enslaved people in Texas to learn that they had been freed.

"I've got so many different feelings all gurgling up in here," Ms Lee said after Congress approved it as a federal holiday.

US to add federal holiday marking end of slavery.