After decades of being celebrated at mostly the local level, Juneteenth – the long-standing holiday that commemorates the arrival of news of emancipation and freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 – became a federal holiday in 2021. In honor of this year’s Juneteenth, Corey D. B. Walker shares a list of readings that can help people better understand the history and meaning of the observance. | Wake Forest University

Juneteenth

On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and Major General Gordon Granger announced the end of the Civil War and that the enslaved people in the town were free. This was the last area in the South to receive the orders that slavery was abolished, and this announcement came over 2.5 years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. What has become known as Juneteenth is now a federal holiday and is a symbolic date representing the African American stru

June 19, 1865 #Juneteenth

Juneteenth - Black Freedom Day

Juneteenth, History lesson for you.

The History and Celebration of Juneteenth