06/19/2026
June 19, 1865 – Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day, Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, is a holiday in the United States that commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in the U.S. state of Texas in 1865, and more generally the emancipation of Black American citizens throughout the United States is celebrated on this date in 1865.
The holiday is observed primarily in local celebrations. Traditions include public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, singing traditional songs.
Celebrations sometimes take the form of parades, rodeos, street fairs, cookouts, family reunions, park parties, historical reenactments, or Miss Juneteenth contests.
During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, with an effective date of January 1, 1863. Although it declared that the enslaved were to be freed in the Confederate States of America in rebellion against the federal government, it had minimal actual effect. Even after the ending of military hostilities, as a part of the former Confederacy, Texas did not act to comply with the Emancipation Proclamation.
On June 18, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrived on the island of Galveston, Texas, to take possession of the state and enforce the emancipation of its enslaved.
On June 19, standing on the balcony of Galveston's Ashton Villa, Granger read the contents of "General Order No. 3":
The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all enslaved 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.
Former slaves in Galveston rejoiced in the streets.
Juneteenth celebrations began in Texas the following year. Across many parts of Texas, freed people pooled their funds to purchase land specifically for their communities and increasingly large Juneteenth gatherings including Houston's Emancipation Park, Mexia's Booker T. Washington Park, and Emancipation Park in Austin.
The event was made a Texas state holiday beginning in 1980, under legislation introduced by freshman Democratic state representative Al Edwards. The legislation was opposed by Black American representative Clay Smothers of Dallas County, who declared the holiday "fraudulent" and belittled the observance as merely "ceremoniously grinning and bursting watermelons on the Capitol grounds".
Juneteenth is a "partial staffing holiday", meaning that state offices do not close, but some employees use a floating holiday to take the day off. Schools are not affected because they are already into summer vacation by June 19. Its observance has spread too many other states, with a few celebrations taking place even in other countries.
