Commemorating the end of African slavery in the United States, Juneteenth has become into a national weekend holiday of sorts.
On Thursday, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution apologizing for slavery in an attempt to take responsibility in the name of the federal government for the capture of and enslavement of Africans for centuries.
After the unanimous consent vote, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa said, "You wonder why we didn't do it 100 years ago." He added, "It is important to have a collective response to a collective injustice," reports the Washington Post.
While the number of hate crimes tallied by the FBI dropped in 2007 – the most recent year for which data are available – violence against Latinos and gay people bucked the trend.