Juneteenth

Juneteenth is the oldest continually celebrated holiday commemorating the liberation of slaves in the United States. Held on June 19th each year, Juneteenth's origins stretch back to the 1865 arrival of Union Army soldiers in Galveston, Texas, with the announcement that the Civil War was over and that slavery had been permanently abolished.

Although the slaves of the South had been freed through the issuance of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, most plantations in the rebellious Confederacy retained their slaves until the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, Virginia, in April, 1865. Juneteenth has been celebrated in some form since 1865, and the holiday has grown beyond its origins as a commemoration of the liberation of only the slaves of Texas. Celebrations of the holiday, however, are still most prevalent in Texas.