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Juneteenth (officially Juneteenth National Independence Day and historically known as Jubilee Day, Black Independence Day, and Emancipation Day) is a federal holiday in the United States (US) commemorating emancipation of enslaved African Americans.

It is also often observed for celebrating African American culture. Originating in Galveston, Texas, it has been celebrated annually on June 19 in various parts of the US since 1866. The day was recognized as a federal holiday on June 17, 2021, when President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. Juneteenth’s commemoration is on the anniversary date of the June 19, 1865, announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Granger, proclaiming freedom for enslaved people in Texas. President Lincoln‘s Emancipation Proclamation of 1862 had outlawed slavery in Texas and the other states that had rebelled against the Union almost two and a half years earlier. Enforcement of the Proclamation generally relied on the advance of Union troops. Texas, as the most remote of the slave states, had seen an expansion of slavery and had a low presence of Union troops as the American Civil War ended; thus, enforcement there had been slow and inconsistent prior to Granger’s announcement. Although the Emancipation Proclamation declared an end to slavery in the Confederate States, slavery was still legal and practiced in two Union border states – Delaware and Kentucky – until December 6, 1865, when ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolished chattel slavery nationwide. Additionally, Indian Territories that had sided with the Confederacy, namely the Choctaw, were the last to release those enslaved, in 1866.

Celebrations date to 1866, at first involving church-centered community gatherings in Texas. It spread across the South and became more commercialized in the 1920s and 1930s, often centering on a food festival. Participants in the Great Migration out of the South carried their celebrations to other parts of the country. During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, these celebrations were eclipsed by the struggle for postwar civil rights, but grew in popularity again in the 1970s with a focus on African-American freedom and African-American arts. As of 2021, South Dakota is the only state that does not recognize Juneteenth, according to the Congressional Research Service; North Dakota approved recognition of Juneteenth on April 13, 2021, with Hawaii becoming the 49th state to recognize the holiday on June 16, 2021. Modern observance is primarily in local celebrations. Traditions include public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, singing traditional songs such as “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing“, and reading of works by noted African-American writers, such as Ralph Ellison and Maya Angelou. Celebrations include rodeos, street fairs, cookouts, family reunions, park parties, historical reenactments, and Miss Juneteenth contests. Juneteenth is also celebrated by the Mascogos, descendants of Black Seminoles who escaped from US slavery in 1852 and settled in Coahuila, Mexico. Juneteenth is the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was declared a holiday in 1986.

Links:
Juneteenth History

Essential Reading: Celebrating Juneteenth

Juneteenth: Fact Sheet Congressional Research Service

Juneteenth Encyclopeadia Britannica

2020-06-10, Lief dagboek – Black Lives Matter