06/18/2021
Tomorrow is Juneteenth, a day of celebration where Americans commemorate our country’s dedication to freedom. It is among the oldest commemorations that mark the end of slavery. Although the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln in 1863 established that all enslaved people would be free, it didn’t instantly free all enslaved black people. Over two years later, on June 19, 1865, 250,000 Texas slaves celebrated as they finally received the news from Union troops that the Emancipation Proclamation had freed them. This week, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives approved a bill that would make Juneteenth a legal holiday, and President Biden signed it into law yesterday.