What Is Juneteenth?

Juneteenth, short for “June Nineteenth,” marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. A federal holiday since 2021, Juneteenth occurs on Friday, June 19, in 2026.

Although Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, in April 1865, slavery had remained relatively intact in Texas. That is until U.S. Major General Gordon Granger stood on Texas soil and read General Orders No. 3: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

The Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, had established that all enslaved people in Confederate states in rebellion against the Union “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

But in reality, the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t instantly free any enslaved people. The proclamation only applied to places under Confederate control and not to slave-holding border states or rebel areas already under Union control. However, as Northern troops advanced into the Confederate South, many enslaved people fled behind Union lines.

In Texas, slavery had continued as the state experienced no large-scale fighting or significant presence of Union troops. Many enslavers from outside the Lone Star State had moved there, as they viewed it as a safe haven for slavery.

After the war came to a close in the spring of 1865, General Granger’s arrival in Galveston that June signaled freedom for more than 250,000 enslaved people in Texas. Celebrations broke out among newly freed Black people, but emancipation didn’t happen overnight for everyone. In some cases, enslavers withheld the information until after harvest season. That December, slavery in America was formally abolished with the adoption of the 13th Amendment.

In 1866, freedmen in Texas organized the first of what became the annual celebration of “Emancipation Day” on June 19. Early commemorates were also called Jubilee Day and Freedom Day. In the ensuing decades, Juneteenth events featured music, barbecues, prayer services and other activities. As Black people migrated from Texas to other parts of the country, the Juneteenth tradition spread.

In 1979, Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth an official holiday. Several others followed suit over the years. Decades later, in June 2021, Congress passed a resolution establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday; President Joe Biden signed it into law on June 17, 2021.