Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the U.S., commemorates African American freedom — while emphasizing education and achievement.
Texas became the final state to comply with the abolition of slavery in 1865 — more than two years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. General Gordon Granger arrived in the city of Galveston to make the announcement on June 19. Attempts to explain this two-and-a-half-year delay have varied.
Here is the notice that Granger delivered to the people of Texas:
“The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer.”
(Pictured above: The Juneteenth Memorial Monument at the George Washington Carver Museum in Austin, Texas.)
