Juneteenth: Uncovering Heritage

Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19th, commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States. The holiday marks the day in 1865 when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced the end of slavery, enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation which had been issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. Although the Emancipation Proclamation had declared all enslaved people in Confederate states free, it wasn't until Granger's announcement that the emancipation was fully enforced in Texas, one of the last holdouts of slavery.