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National Independence Day, June 19, 19, marks the day US General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865 – and shared the news that the Emancipation Proclamation had been adopted two years earlier. The Civil War ended two months before June 1865.
Last year, June 12 became the nation’s 12th federal holiday with 415 votes to 14 in the House of Representatives.
President Biden signed the bill on June 17, 2021.
Recently, the day has been colloquially known as Juneteenth, an agreed-upon word that combines June with the number 19. Federal recognition came two days before the 156th anniversary of June.
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Junteenth observers pay tribute to the day with parades, festivals, speeches, gatherings for social justice and charity.
This year, for the first time, US stock markets will be closed on Monday, June 20, in honor of June 16. Federal workers receive a paid day off for the eleventh.
More history and background
When General Granger shared the news in Texas about the Proclamation of Emancipation, slaves in the rest of the rebel state did not know that President Abraham Lincoln had issued the 1863 proclamation releasing slaves in the Confederate states.
This archival photograph from June 19, 1900, shows African Americans gathering in Texas for Emancipation Day, now known as the Juneteenth. The federal holiday marks the day in 1865, when slaves in Texas first learned they were exempt from the Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 1863 (The Portal to Texas History Austin History Center, Austin Public Library)
The slave trade remained in force after the capitulation of Confederate General Robert E. Lee to Ulysses S. Grant of the Union on April 9, 1865, and Lincoln’s death on April 15, 1865, according to historians.
Approximately 250,000 slaves were released in Texas after the army announced.
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It is not known why the news of emancipation did not reach all 34 states that make up the warring nation. Theories about what could lead to delayed announcement have been circulating for more than a century.
The Library of Congress names three theories that have been debated among historians and observers since the Juneteenth century.
Early celebrations recognize June 19 as Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day, Freedom Day, and Black Independence Day.
These include the possibility that the envoy carrying the message of the proclamation of emancipation to Texas was killed in the middle of the trip; that slave owners may have deliberately withheld the news; or that federal troops may have delayed the application of the proclamation until slaveholders were able to reap their final cotton harvests through slave labor.
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Despite uncertainty about the delay, freed slaves continued to celebrate the day in Texas and the United States
President Abraham Lincoln’s signature can be seen on the 13th Amendment in an exhibition at the Tennessee State Museum on February 11, 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee. The 13th Amendment, which abolishes slavery, was set out together with the Proclamation of Emancipation as part of the Opening of the Civil War Exposition. (AP Photo / Mark Humphrey)
Early celebrations recognize June 19 as Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day, Freedom Day, and Black Independence Day.
Observers of the day argue that the annual recognition of this moment in history serves as a reminder that slavery was not actually abolished by the Emancipation Proclamation – which was adopted on January 1, 1863.
On June 17, 2021, the whip from the majority in the House of Representatives James Clayburn, DS.C., reached Representative Maxine Waters, D-California, joined by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, center, and black a group of members of Congress as they celebrated the National Independence Day Act on June 16, which created a federal holiday in honor of June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought news of the freedom of enslaved blacks after the Civil War. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
Slavery was officially abolished by the Nation’s 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which was ratified on December 6, 1865.
This happened six months after June 16.
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Although General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia on April 8, 1865, marking the beginning of the end of the Four Years Civil War, the Civil War was officially ended on April 2, 1866 by President Andrew Johnson.
Courtney Moore is an associate lifestyle writer / producer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to Twitter at @ CortneyMoore716.
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