(Undated) -- Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty is calling on community members to do their part to fight racism this Juneteenth. Hardesty says that while Juneteenth has now become a federal holiday, white supremacy and racism remain alive and well today. Hardesty says she hopes people go beyond appreciating the holiday as a day off from work and recommit to exposing white supremacy where they find it. She says she also hopes the holiday serves as a call to action to white community members to step up in ways they never imagined stepping up before. Originating in Galveston, Texas, the Juneteenth holiday observes the end of slavery -- or more specifically, the day men, women and children held in bondage in Texas and other parts of the southwest, learned they were free on June 19th 1865. That was more than two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. Since it falls on a Sunday this year, the official public holiday is today.