How the Juneteenth Holiday Celebrates Black Freedom

Many planters and other slaveholders migrated to Texas from the eastern states. They wanted to mitigate the growing problem of their slaves—many of whom had no intention of waiting for the Union to make good on its emancipatory promise—escaping to freedom behind Union lines. The new arrivals boosted Texas’ enslaved population from 182,000 at the start of the Civil War to an estimated 250,000 by the end.

Initially, the Lone Star State, which was the most remote of all the slave states, had too few Union troops at the end of the Civil War to enforce emancipation. And most slaveholders were not going to comply until emancipation was enforced at the point of a bayonet. But on June 19th, Union General Gordon Granger arrived with his troops in Galveston.

In announcing General Order No. 3, Granger stated:

D. Reid Ross offers one account of the scene on June 19th in his book, Lincoln’s Veteran Volunteers Win The War:

Yet even after June 19th, blacks were subjected to lynchings, harassment, and even murders by local whites, who considered Granger’s order an affront to white landowners who were dismayed to lose unpaid black labor. And the pronouncement was not only a destabilizing force for the economic engine of slavery, but also a challenge to the prevailing racist view of blacks as an inferior people.

Indeed, despite the Juneteenth milestone, some slaves in the state—at great personal risk—reported to Granger and other Union authorities that they were still being held in bondage. Texas was not alone in this regard. Slavery was still legally practiced in the Union border states of Delaware and Kentucky for another half a year until December 31, 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution was finally ratified, formally abolishing chattel slavery throughout the country.

Even so, on June 19, 1866, the one year anniversary of Granger’s arrival, freedmen in Texas organized the first Juneteenth celebration, which they affectionately called “Jubilee Day,” a reference to the ancient Jewish practice of freeing slaves and forgiving debts every fifty years.

Today, Juneteenth is considered the longest-​running, distinctly black American holiday. In ensuing years, Juneteenth events commonly featured family outings, music, prayer services, and other celebratory activities. And while Juneteenth started as a Texas celebration, with the Great Migration of black people across the nation in the early twentieth century, Juneteenth spread as well.

In 1979, Texas became the first state to recognize Juneteenth as an official holiday. On June 18, 2021, after many failed attempts, the federal government finally joined most U.S. states by recognizing Juneteenth as a federal holiday. But regardless of official approval, Juneteenth symbolizes new hope for black people in a nation predicated on freedom and justice for all but which so often fell short of that promise. Moreover, it offers an opportunity for every American, both black and white, to explore black contributions to the history of freedom.