Originally celebrated by newly freed Black communities in Texas with religious services, barbecues and symbolic traditions like discarding clothing worn during enslavement, the holiday has since grown beyond Texas and the South.

A federal holiday is coming up on Thursday to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth, first declared a federal holiday in 2021, has a history stretching back to Civil War-era America but rose in popularity in the months after the 2020 racial justice protests across the nation.