When is juneteenth day

In June of , my grandmother was laid to rest. The parade stopped to let us pass, and the men and women on horseback removed their cowboy hats and placed them over their hearts.

It was the first time that day we laughed - Grams would have loved that she stopped a parade. She lived an amazing life after that, with God at the helm. That the men and women so selflessly stopped to allow our funeral procession to move past has remained in our family's hearts and minds all these years.

We cannot thank you enough for your kindness. You are forever a part of our family's history. All materials contained in this site are protected by trademark and copyright laws and must only be used for personal, non-commercial purposes. Content on this website is provided to you as is for your information and personal use only. Breach of these terms may violate copyright, trademark and other laws and is punishable by law. Skip to content. Quick Links:. What is Juneteenth? Celebrate Safely.

General Order Number 3. What are your thoughts on Juneteenth? Together, we will lay the roots of real and lasting justice, so that we can become the extraordinary country that was promised to all Americans.

I call upon the people of the United States to acknowledge and celebrate the end of the Civil War and the emancipation of Black Americans, and commit together to eradicate systemic racism that still undermines our founding ideals and collective prosperity.

We'll be in touch with the latest information on how President Biden and his administration are working for the American people, as well as ways you can get involved and help our country build back better. You have JavaScript disabled.

Please enable JavaScript to use this feature. Toggle High Contrast. Juneteenth has gained awareness in recent years as activists have pushed for state and federal recognition. With the signing of this bill, those efforts will finally come to fruition as Juneteenth becomes the first new federal holiday since the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr.

Day in At the stroke of midnight on January 1, , the Emancipation Proclamation came into effect and declared enslaved people in the Confederacy free—on the condition that the Union won the war. The proclamation turned the war into a fight for freedom and by the end of the war , Black soldiers had joined the fight , spreading news of freedom as they fought their way through the South.

Read about the history of Juneteenth with your kids. Since Texas was one of the last strongholds of the South, emancipation would be a long-time coming for enslaved people in the state.

Even after the last battle of the Civil War was fought in —a full two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed—it is believed that many enslaved people still did not know they were free.

As the story goes, some , enslaved people only learned of their freedom after Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, , and announced that the president had issued a proclamation freeing them.

This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.

As newly freed Texans began moving to neighboring states, Juneteenth celebrations spread across the South and beyond. Early Juneteenth celebrations included church services, public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, and social events like rodeos and dances. Learn how to cook Juneteenth cookies. For decades, many southern Black communities were forced to celebrate Juneteenth on the outskirts of town due to racism and Jim Crow laws. To ensure they had a safe place to gather, Juneteenth groups would often collectively purchase plots of land in the city on which to celebrate.

These parks were commonly named Emancipation Parks, many of which still exist today. Union soldiers, many of whom were black, marched onto plantations and across cities in the south reading small copies of the Emancipation Proclamation spreading the news of freedom in Confederate States.

Only through the Thirteenth Amendment did emancipation end slavery throughout the United States. But not everyone in Confederate territory would immediately be free. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in , it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control.

As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later.