Juneteenth National Independence Day is our nations first federal holiday established since Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This year, Juneteenth will be commemorated on Saturday, June 19th.

“Juneteenth being made a Federal Holiday is long overdue. It’s sad that our children weren’t taught Black History in school. Had they been taught they would know all the GREAT things we as Black people contributed to the World in which we live.”
– Belinda Joyner, Clean Water for NC

Juneteenth, also called Emancipation Day, Freedom Day or Freedom Day or Jubilee Day commemorates June 19, 1865, as the day enslaved African Americans in Galveston, TX learned they were free. While the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863 and the 13th Amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, the news was slow to reach people in Texas. Finally on June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger with Union troops landed in Galveston and read aloud General Orders No. 3: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”