What is Juneteenth?

Juneteenth is the best-known and one of the oldest American holidays that celebrates the end of slavery in the United States; it commemorates the date June 19, 1865, when the last African American slaves held in Confederate states were freed and has been observed since June 19, 1866.

Although President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as an executive order on January 1, 1863, its immediate impact was relatively small due to the fact that Confederate slaveowners weren’t compelled to observe Union authority. Thus, millions of African Americans continued to live as slaves until Union armies gradually made their way across the South to overtake Confederate resistance and enforce Lincoln’s order. 

On June 19, 1865, approximately two-and-a-half years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Union Army general Gordon Granger accompanied with 2,000 federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, took possession of the state and stood on the steps of Ashton Villa and read General Order #3, announcing that all enslaved African still being held in the state of Texas were legally free. Six months later, the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865 would ultimately make slavery illegal throughout the entire United States.