06/19/2026
This year marks the fifth anniversary of Juneteenth as a federal holiday, celebrated annually on June 19 to honor the end of slavery in the U.S., with events and commemorations continuing across the country. The holiday is considered the "longest-running African-American holiday" and has been called "America's second Independence Day".
In 1863, during the American Civil War, Pres. Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared more than three million enslaved people living in the Confederate states to be free. More than two years passed, however, before some 250,000 enslaved African Americans living in Texas were freed. It was not until Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, and were able to enforce the edict that the state’s residents finally experienced freedom.
