We celebrate Juneteenth to commemorate June 19, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced that enslaved people were free.

President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect on January 1, 1863, but slavery continued in Texas because the proclamation had not been effectively enforced there. The June 1865 announcement brought freedom to roughly 250,000 enslaved people in Texas, more than two years after the proclamation.

Juneteenth celebrates:

  • The end of slavery in the United States
  • Freedom, perseverance, and African American achievement
  • Recognition that legal rights have little meaning unless they are enforced
  • Reflection on the continuing pursuit of equality and justice

The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified on December 6, 1865, formally abolished slavery throughout the United States, except as punishment for a crime.

Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021. It is both a celebration of freedom and a reminder that freedom delayed is freedom denied.