19/06/2025
Let's Celebrate Juneteenth!
What is Juneteenth? Also called Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, or Jubilee Day, Juneteenth is the commemoration of June 19, 1865, the day enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, learned that they were free. While President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, it only applied to people in Confederate states, not those enslaved in Union-held territories (they were not freed until the proclamation of the 13th Amendment). In Texas, a Confederate state where there was no large Union Army presence, slavery continued years after the Emancipation Proclamation--and even after the 13th Amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865--as many enslaved people in the state were not aware of the news. Finally, in June of 1865, Major General Gordon Granger and Union troops landed in Galveston, Texas, to tell the enslaved African-Americans living there that the Civil War had ended and that they were now free. ROI recognizes and celebrates such an important day in the history of our country.
