Rockland County legislators officially declared Juneteenth a permanent annual observance in the county. 

The holiday commemorates the day in 1865 that Union soldiers landed in Galveston, Texas with news that the war ended and that slaves were free. This was more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

The date has been long-celebrated across the nation.

Legislators say it will remind residents the struggle for equality and how that struggle still continues.