Happy Juneteenth!

Juneteenth is the official name of federal holiday Juneteenth National

Independence Day, also called Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Jubilee

Day, Black Independence Day, and Juneteenth Independence Day, holiday

celebrating the end of slavery in the United States. This most important day is observed and celebrated annually on June 19. This year, Juneteenth is celebrated on Sunday, June 19, 2022.

According to Britannica, “in 1863, during the American Civil War, Pres. Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared more than three million slaves living in the Confederate states to be free. More than two years would pass, however, before the news reached African Americans living in Texas. It was not until Union soldiers arrived in

Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, that the state’s residents finally learned

that slavery had been abolished. The former slaves immediately began to

celebrate with prayer, feasting, song, and dance.”