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.”
Juneteenth and Civil Rights
In the 1960s, Civil Rights Leaders brought the celebration of Juneteenth back into American life.
The Emancipation Proclamation and Slavery in Texas
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.
The signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863. It took two and a half years for Union troops to reach Texas and enforce the end of slavery there.
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
Illustrated print by Thomas Nast depicting life before and after emancipation.
The Union commander’s notice of the Emancipation Proclamation, as posted to the citizens of Winchester, Virginia, on January 5, 1863.
Crowds of people, recently freed from enslavement, carry copies of the Emancipation Proclamation in this 1864 illustration.
This 1868 illustration by Thomas Nast shows a freed man sitting atop a monument that lists evils perpetrated against Black people. A dead woman and children lie at the bottom, while violence rages in the background.
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
A photograph of a group of formerly enslaved people at a county almshouse, circa 1900.
Students and teachers stand outside the Freedmen’s Bureau school in Beaufort, South Carolina, circa 1865. Following the end of the Civil War, several schools opened up for Black families.
A formerly enslaved man and woman are shown at a plantation house in Greene County, Georgia, circa 1937.
This photo shows Minerva and Edgar Bendy, who were formerly enslaved, in Woodville, Texas, circa 1937.
The work-weathered hands of Henry Brooks, a formerly enslaved man from Greene County, Georgia, circa 1941.
The End of Slavery and Juneteenth
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.
7 Juneteenth Foods and Traditions
Eating red foods and promoting activism on Juneteenth pay tribute to the liberation of America’s formerly enslaved people.
