06/19/2026
Juneteenth—a portmanteau of "June" and "nineteenth"—is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. It marks the day in 1865 when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to ensure all enslaved people were freed, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Though President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, it was unenforceable in Confederate-controlled areas. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865, that Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Texas to read "General Order No. 3," finally enforcing the freedom of 250,000 enslaved Black Texans.
