Juneteenth has been celebrated throughout the United States for more than a century. It has included festivities such as this parade in St. Augustine, Florida in 1922.

The end of slavery in the United States

Juneteenth is a recognition and celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. A combination of the terms “June” and “nineteenth,” this holiday – taking place on June 19 – marks the date in which Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865, ensuring the freedom of all enslaved people in the state.

The arrival of the troops came two months after General Robert E. Lee surrendered in Appomattox, Virginia. Two years earlier, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Texas became the last Southern state to be formally notified of the president’s action that freed all enslaved people in Confederate states.

The 13th Amendment abolishing slavery was ratified on Dec. 6, 1865. The following year, the first celebration of “Jubilee Day” on June 19 was organized in Texas, which is now known as Juneteenth.

Juneteenth as an official holiday

Juneteenth has been an annual celebration across the country, and it became a national holiday in 2021. Last October, the Board of County Commissioners also made it a county holiday, approving it unanimously. In 2022, it was recognized by Johnson County for the first time, on Monday, June 20, since June 19 fell on a Sunday.

Juneteenth was first celebrated as a state holiday in Texas in 1980, as “Jubilee Day.” Forty-one years later, in 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, establishing Juneteenth as a national holiday.