A reenactment of "the moment of freedom" for the Washington family at Booker T. Washington National Monument, Virginia. NPS photo.
Juneteenth, on June 19, is the oldest known U.S. celebration of the end of chattel slavery — marking the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in Texas. On June 17, 2021, it became a national holiday: Juneteenth National Independence Day.
From proclamation to freedom
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| September 1862 | President Abraham Lincoln makes abolition official U.S. policy by announcing the Emancipation Proclamation: enslaved people in areas "in rebellion against the United States" will be free on January 1, 1863 — though it can't be enforced there |
| 1863–1865 | As Union troops move through the South, they bring the news and the military power to enforce it. Many enslaved people free themselves by reaching Union lines, and many join the Army and Navy as United States Colored Troops |
| April 1865 | Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant after the Battle of Appomattox Court House — but in the Trans-Mississippi West, fighting goes on into May in Texas |
| June 2, 1865 | Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith surrenders the Trans-Mississippi West |
| June 19, 1865 | Brigadier General Gordon Granger and his troops land at Galveston, Texas, confirming that the war is over and that enslaved African Americans are free |
Why Texas was last
Until Granger arrived, the U.S. military in Texas was too weak to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. News of it reached Texas slowly, missed some places entirely, and elsewhere was hidden by slaveholders. Two months after Lee's surrender, Union forces were finally strong enough to act as a liberating force across the state.
One of Granger's first acts was to announce freedom. Many freed people left Texas at once — for the North, or to search for family in other states. Even those with nowhere in particular to go left the places where they had been enslaved, if only to grasp freedom for the first time.
A celebration grows
In the years after the war, many formerly enslaved people and their descendants made yearly pilgrimages to Galveston. The 13th Amendment, ratified in December 1865, ended slavery everywhere in the nation — but Juneteenth captured the jubilation of its end in the Confederacy.
- 1980: Juneteenth becomes an official state holiday in Texas.
- Since then it has been adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia.
- 2021: it becomes a national holiday.
More: African American heritage · Civil rights · Slavery and abolition
Sources
Based on "Juneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The count of 45 states is as the source gives it.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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