The day of June 19, shortened to Juneteenth, marks an important holiday in our country. Widely considered the oldest known celebration of the end of slavery in the United States, Juneteenth has its origins in the announcement on June 19, 1865, by Union Major General Gordon Granger that the enslaved people in Texas were then freed. Although the Emancipation Proclamation declared that all enslaved people would be free, its enforcement depended on the military success of the Union Army during and even after the Civil War. Texas was the last state of the Confederacy to have people in slavery.
Appropriately, in 1980 Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth a state holiday and 48 other states, as well as the District of Columbia, followed suit. On June 17, 2021, President Biden signed legislation making it a national holiday, the first holiday to be added to the list of federal holidays since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established in 1983.
Recent Comments