Sussex County offices close June 19

By Brian Gilliland

GEORGETOWN — In observance of Juneteenth National Independence Day on Wednesday, the offices of the Sussex County government will be closed.

Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, but early celebrations date back to 1866 marking when the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the Civil War. However, enslaved people in union states had to wait for the 13^th Amendment, ratified later that year in December, to be freed.

It is the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Day was established in 1983.