Juneteenth — first observed in Texas and now recognized throughout the United States — celebrates a historic freedom moment for Black Americans. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced the long-overdue news that all enslaved Black people were free. This news came through Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger’s General Order No. 3, issued more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863.
Although the Emancipation Proclamation declared enslaved people in Confederate states to be free, the order could only be enforced in areas under Union control. In Texas, slavery continued until Union soldiers arrived to enforce the law. For more than 250,000 enslaved Black Americans in Texas, June 19 marked the long-awaited arrival of freedom. Six months later, on Dec. 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified, formally abolishing slavery throughout the country.