June 17, 2022

June 19 is Juneteenth – the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas came under the authority of the Union Army orders ending slavery. Juneteenth celebrates the emancipation of the last remaining enslaved African Americans in the United States.

While President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation officially freed all slaves in the U.S. on Jan. 1, 1863, many slave owners had begun migrating west toward Texas – the last state to come under the control of the Union army and the last state to end slavery.

Last year, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to designate Juneteenth as a federal holiday, one day after the Senate unanimously voted for its passage. President Biden signed the bill into law on June 17, 2021.