Juneteenth - Wikipedia

Juneteenth[b] (officially Juneteenth National Independence Day and historically known as Jubilee Day,[2] Black Independence Day,[3] and Emancipation Day[4][5]) is a federal holiday in the United States celebrating the emancipation of African American slaves.[6] Originating in Galveston, Texas, in 1866, it has been celebrated annually on June 19 throughout the United States. It became a recognized federal holiday in June 2021 when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law.[7][8][9] It is commemorated on the anniversary date of the June 19, 1865, announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Gordon Granger, proclaiming freedom for slaves in Texas.[10]

President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1862 had officially outlawed slavery in Texas and the other states that had rebelled against the Union almost two and a half years earlier. Enforcement of the Proclamation generally relied on the advance of Union troops. Texas, as the most remote of the slave states, had seen an expansion of slavery and had a low presence of Union troops as the American Civil War ended; thus, enforcement there had been slow and inconsistent prior to Granger's announcement.[10] Although the Emancipation Proclamation declared an end to slavery in the Confederate States, slavery was still legal and practiced in two Union border states – Delaware and Kentucky – until December 6, 1865, when ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolished chattel slavery nationwide. Additionally, Indian Territories that had sided with the Confederacy, namely the Choctaw, were the last to release those enslaved, in 1866.[11][12][13][c][14]

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