Historical significance: Juneteenth, considered the oldest African American holiday in the U.S., commemorates the emancipation of more than 250,000 enslaved African Americans in Texas – more than two and half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, to declare the end of slavery.
While momentous, it was years before this news reached the farthest regions of the former Confederacy.
The news of freedom was delivered June 19, 1865, with the arrival of federal troops in Galveston, Texas.
In 2021, President Joe Biden signed a bill passed by Congress to make Juneteenth a U.S. federal holiday.
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