What Exactly Is Juneteenth and Why Do We Celebrate It?
Juneteenth, also known as “Freedom Day,” “Jubilee Day,” or “Black Fourth of July”, commemorates June 19, 1865.
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863; it was intended, to free all the slaves. Texas was the most remote of the slave states, and the Emancipation Proclamation was not enforced there until after the Civil War had already ended. So emancipation did not really happen until 1865 when all of the slave-holding states were aware of the news.
Juneteenth became a state holiday in Texas in 1980, and a number of other states subsequently followed suit. It became a federal holiday in 2021.