Juneteenth - United States Holiday
Juneteenth
United States holiday
Also known as: Black Independence Day, Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day, Juneteenth Independence Day, Juneteenth National Independence Day
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Last Updated: Jun 15, 2025 •
Official name of federal holiday:
Juneteenth National Independence Day
Also called:
Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Black Independence Day, and Juneteenth Independence Day
Key People:
Related Topics:
Emancipation Park, Juneteenth, and a Recommitment to Freedom
Why Do We Celebrate Juneteenth?
Top Questions
What is Juneteenth?
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What is the origin of Juneteenth?
Juneteenth, holiday observed annually on June 19, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. A combination of the words June and nineteenth, the holiday, also called Freedom Day, has been celebrated since 1866 and is considered to be one of the oldest continuing African American holidays. On June 17, 2021, Pres. Joe Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.
Juneteenth celebration Emancipation Day celebration, Austin, Texas, June 19, 1900.
History
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. (Chattel slavery remained legal in border states loyal to the Union—such as Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia—and was not officially abolished in the United States until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment.) More than two years passed, however, before enslaved African Americans living in Texas (some 250,000) 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. For some—enslavers and the enslaved alike—it was through Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger’s General Order No. 3 that they first learned that slavery had been abolished in the Confederate states.
The order read, in part: “The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, ‘all slaves are free’.”
A Teen Girl Recalls Juneteenth in the 1950s
Reactions to freedom from the formerly enslaved ranged from silent disbelief and shock to celebrations filled with prayer, feasting, song, and dance. Those celebrations formed the basis of an annual holiday that would come to have many names, including Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day, and Juneteenth.
Celebrations and traditions
Juneteenth gathering at Emancipation ParkA group, including Emancipation Park founder Jack Yates (far left), gathers for a Juneteenth celebration, Houston, c. 1880s.
The following year, on June 19, 1866, the first official Juneteenth celebrations took place in Texas. The original observances included prayer meetings and the singing of spirituals, and celebrants wore new clothes as a way of representing their newfound freedom. Black Americans claimed dedicated spaces to celebrate Juneteenth, and the first official Emancipation Park was established in Houston in 1872.
Within a few years, as Black Texans moved around the country and spread Juneteenth traditions, communities in other states began celebrating the day as well. Celebrations have continued annually across the United States into the 21st century and typically include prayer and religious services, speeches, parades, educational events, family gatherings and picnics, and festivals with music, dancing, and food. Celebrations often include a performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the unofficial Black American national anthem.