Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.
Dating back to 1865, it was on
June 19
th
that the Union soldiers, led by
Major General Gordon Granger
, landed at
Galveston, Texas
with news that the war had ended and that the
enslaved were now free
. Note that this was
two and a half years after
President Lincoln’s
Emancipation Proclamation
- which had
become official January 1, 1863
. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new
Executive Order
. However, with the
surrender of General Lee in April of 1865
, and the
arrival of General Granger’s regiment,
the
forces
were finally strong enough to
influence
and
overcome the resistance.
-juneteenth.com
