06/19/2025
Summertime, and the livin' is easy. It's the season for splashing around in a swimming pool, throwing something on the grill and spending as much time as possible outdoors with friends and loved ones. When the air smells like charcoal, you can hear the ice cream truck on its way down the street and there's a damp swimsuit or two hanging from the shower rod, you know the best time of year has arrived.
And for many, summer is really here when it's Juneteenth, which is celebrated every year on June 19. The holiday, also known as Emancipation Day, Freedom Day or Jubilee Day, commemorates June 19, 1865, the day the last remaining enslaved people in America learned that slavery had been abolished.
While the Emancipation Proclamation was handed down on January 1, 1863, it took some time for the news to spread. In Texas, slavery continued for years afterward because many people, especially in rural areas, simply hadn't heard yet that the Civil War had ended and Congress had passed the 13th Amendment. By 1866, Slave owners knew however.
