What Is Juneteenth? The History Of This Holiday, Meaning And Important Facts

The annual Juneteenth celebration celebrates the abolition of slavery in the United States following the Civil War. Each year on June 19, this day is commemorated.

The official name of the federal holiday is Juneteenth The yearly celebration of Juneteenth National Independence Day, also known as Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Black Independence Day, and Juneteenth Independence Day, honours the abolition of slavery in the United States.

In the USA, Juneteenth is a federal holiday to commemorate the abolition of slavery against African-Americans. Its name is a combination of the dates June and the nineteenth (19th). The day is significant because on June 19, 1865, Galveston, Texas, authorised the release of the last Black Confederate slaves.

What is Juneteenth?

In the USA, Juneteenth is a federal holiday to honour the liberation of African-Americans who had been held as slaves. Its name is a combination of June and the nineteenth (19th). In 2021, Joe Biden, the president, acknowledged it.

Why is Juneteenth an important day in the USA?

Before Juneteenth was recognised as a federally recognised holiday, it was already a state or ceremonial holiday in 48 states and Washington, D.C. Only Texas had proclaimed Juneteenth a state holiday for decades, but in recent years, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia have all approved laws to legally recognise the occasion as well.

The first Juneteenth celebration took place on June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, a U.S. Army commander and Union General during the Civil War, announced that all slaves had been freed as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation. 

The proclamation, which President Abraham Lincoln had signed into law more than two years earlier and which granted freedom to all enslaved individuals in Confederate states, was the last to reach around 250,000 Black slaves in Texas. 

Along with the activity and turbulence that accompanied America's grappling with racism and police brutality, there was a fresh effort to recognise Juneteenth, which many saw as a day designed to commemorate both the nation's independence and its long history of slavery while simultaneously celebrating independence.

Facts about Juneteenth

- Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Liberation Day are additional names for Juneteenth. 

- Since the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983, it is the first federal holiday. 

- Opal Lee, a Texas-based activist, is one of the main proponents of declaring Juneteenth a federal holiday across the US. 

- Texas was the first state to celebrate Juneteenth as a holiday in 1980.

To sum up, Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom rather than merely a holiday.