They're saying, 'We are citizens of this place and this is where we belong.' And they're there, continuing on with tremendous faith. I just felt very proud of them, with the sort of resilience in the face of all that I know that's going on in that time period.

I know how tough Texas was in 1925 for Black people. What were your first reactions when you saw the clip? You recently wrote an opinion essay in The New York Times about the connection between Juneteenth and July 4, where you mentioned the archived 1920s-era footage of Black Americans marching in a Juneteenth parade in Beaumont, Texas. There are people out there who are talking about it in an age-appropriate way. Over the course of doing events for 'On Juneteenth,' I saw that there are so many books for kids about Juneteenth at almost every level, from kindergarten and first grade to young adults. There will be challenges to some of those laws too, and some of them seem to be blatantly unconstitutional. Now that it's a national holiday, you have to be able to discuss Juneteenth. She got to see something that she put in motion come to fruition. To see her in the room with the president paying special attention to her, bringing her onstage, and giving her a pen, was just thrilling. Opal worked so hard to make Juneteenth a national holiday. Well, the first thing that I was impressed with is how easily he got down and got up. What was it like to see President Biden kneeling to greet and honor Opal Lee, the 94-year-old Texas native who has been advocating for a national Juneteenth holiday for years? I think it will be good for the country to have a day to reflect on slavery and the end of slavery. It was just extraordinary to have all these people in the East Room who were happy about this - we've been through so much in the past year with the pandemic.

After the House and Senate voted, I got an email from the White House inviting me to come down to Washington, DC, for the signing ceremony. It has been just amazing to see the holiday happen. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.

On juneteenth author gordon reed