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- GOP Sen. Ron Johnson stalled the passing of making Juneteenth a holiday.
- He conceded his efforts on Tuesday and the effort unanimously passed in the Senate.
- On Saturday, June 19, he was booed at an event commemorating the holiday in Wisconsin.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Sen. Ron Johnson was booed at an event celebrating Juneteenth in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Saturday, WDJT reported.
A bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday unanimously passed in the Senate on Tuesday, but only made it through after Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin ended his efforts to block it.
Johnson said it would be too costly to give federal employees another day off, but conceded on Tuesday and said few of his colleagues wanted to debate the idea.
June 19th, or Juneteenth, is commemorated by many Black Americans as an independence day that celebrates the day that Union soldiers informed the last enslaved African Americans that the Emancipation Proclamation had established their freedom. It was signed by President Abraham Lincoln two years earlier.
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WDJT reported that Johnson was also heckled by a crowd while speaking to reporters.
"We don't need you out here," one person can be heard saying about Johnson in a video of the event.