19/06/2025
Origins of Juneteenth
The Juneteenth National Independence Day Act was signed into law by then-United States President Joe Biden on June 17, 2021. The act was a formal declaration of Juneteenth as a federal holiday, which is now celebrated annually on June 19.
Perhaps because it hasn’t been a formal federal holiday for very long, Juneteenth is not as familiar to many Americans as holidays such as Memorial Day, Independence Day or Labor Day. According to the National Museum of African American History & Culture, June 19, 1865, was an especially significant day for more than a quarter million African Americans living in Texas at the time. Though the date marked nearly two years since President Abraham Lincoln emancipated enslaved Africans in America, Union troops did not arrive in Galveston Bay, Texas, with news of that freedom until June 1865. On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger delivered the news that all slaves had been emancipated and that going forward the dynamic between slave owners and slaves was to become a relationship between employer and hired laborer.
