Juneteenth

“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. 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. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.” —General Orders, Number 3; Headquarters District of Texas, Galveston, June 19, 1865

President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was made in 1863 but it wasn't until the message reached and enforced in Texas, the last stronghold of slavery in the US, that emancipation became possible for all enslaved people in the country. That day, the day the order to free all enslaved people reached Texas, June 19th, became a commonly celebrated day of emancipation and liberation for the formerly enslaved and their descendants, known today as Juneteenth. 

For the first time in 2021, President Joseph Biden declared Juneteenth a federal holiday.