Juneteenth

Celebrated annually on June 19th, Juneteenth is the oldest known observance of the end of slavery in the U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, issued on Sep. 22, 1862, declared that on January 1, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within states in rebellion against the U.S. would be forever free, but ending African American slavery required the Civil War and passage of the 13th Amendment. After the war ended in April 1865, most enslaved people in Texas were still unaware of their freedom until Union troops arrived in Galveston and Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, commanding the District of Texas from headquarters in the Osterman building at Strand and 22nd St., read General Order No. 3 on June 19, 1865, informing the people of Texas that all slaves were free and that former masters and slaves had absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property. With this notice, Reconstruction-era Texas began. Freed African Americans observed Emancipation Day in Galveston as early as 1866, and as gatherings spread across Texas, celebrations included parades, prayer, singing, and readings of the proclamation. In the mid-20th century, these community celebrations gave way to more private commemorations, but renewed public observance helped make Juneteenth a state holiday in 1979. First observed in Texas, it is now commemorated worldwide as a celebration of freedom and the triumph of the human spirit.

Galveston, Texas · United States