Happy Juneteenth! June what?
Juneteenth celebrates the ending of slavery as marked by the arrival of Major General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Texas. He announced to the town that the Civil War had ended and all slaves were free. President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation actually became official on January 1, 1863, but it took two and a half years for the news to reach Texas.