History of the Holidays: Juneteenth

** Updated maps in May 2024 with Kentucky **
For over 150 years, millions of Black Americans have celebrated freedom from slavery on June 19th.
This makes Juneteenth the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States.
In 1980, Texas became the first state to officially designate a Juneteenth Holiday.
President Biden on June 17th 2021 signed legislation to make Juneteenth a Federal Holiday.
Since then, about half the US states have joined Texas in making Juneteenth a state holiday.
The remaining states officially recognize Juneteenth and have an official observance of the day.
Let's take a look at the History of this Holiday
Officially known as Emancipation Day and also called Juneteenth Independence Day and Freedom Day, Juneteenth is a portmanteau word for June and nineteenth.
It marks the occasion on June 19th 1865, when Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and announced the end of the war and slavery.
The message came two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st 1863 declaring that all persons held as slaves shall be free.
News arrived late in the state of Texas, one of the last strongholds of the South.
The presidential order could not be enforced in many places until after the Civil War had ended in April 1865.
In 1866, thousands of former slaves traveled back to Galveston on June 19 in recognition of their newfound freedom, calling the gathering Jubilee Day.
In 1872 a group of Black Americans purchased 10 acres of land in Houston and named it Emancipation Park. It was devoted as a Juneteenth celebration site and is still around to this day.
Today, celebrations of Juneteenth - also known as Freedom Day and Liberty Day - include parades, storytelling, barbecue and baseball.
Strawberry soda pop is the drink of choice and the building from which General Granger read the Proclamation is now a historic landmark.
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