What event does Juneteenth commemorate in United States history?

Juneteenth commemorates emancipation in Texas, when enslaved people learned of their freedom on June 19, 1865.

On that date, Union Major General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas. The order announced that all enslaved people in Texas were free under the Emancipation Proclamation. President Abraham Lincoln had issued that proclamation on January 1, 1863, but enforcement depended on Union military control, and news did not reach many Texans until after the Civil War had effectively ended.

Juneteenth combines “June” and “nineteenth.” Texas recognized it as a state holiday in 1980, and President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act in 2021, making it a federal holiday.

The holiday commemorates the enforcement and announcement of emancipation in Texas, not the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation itself. The Thirteenth Amendment later abolished slavery throughout the United States, except as punishment for a crime after conviction.