Juneteenth – a Federal holiday
June 19, 2026
Juneteenth, officially Juneteenth National Independence Day, celebrated on June 19th, is a federal holiday in the United States to celebrate the end of slavery.
In January 1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President of the United States, issued the Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery in the country. Because the edict depended on Union military victories to take practical effect, freedom was realized at different times depending on the region while the war was ongoing. Enslaved African Americans in the South were able to become permanently free either by escaping the control of their enslavers and fleeing North to Union lines or through the advance of federal troops.
The Civil War officially ended on April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Although the surrender of Lee signaled the collapse of the Confederacy, it took many more weeks for the remaining organized troops to surrender, with the final land battle occurring at Palmito Ranch in Texas on May 13, 1865.
The Juneteenth holiday commemorates June 19, 1865, the day when Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the American Civil War. This was more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation document was signed. This event is celebrated today as Juneteenth giving national attention to the Texas step of the long process of slaves gaining their freedom in the United States.
The 13th and 14th Amendments, along with the 15th, are the "Reconstruction Amendments" added to the U.S. Constitution between 1865 and 1870 to abolish slavery and secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people. Congress ratified the 13th Amendment in December of 1865, abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States. The 14th Amendment, ratified in July 1968, established the definition of national citizenship and guaranteed fundamental civil liberties to all individuals. The 15th Amendment, ratified in February 1870, granted African American men the right to vote by prohibiting the federal government or any state from denying a citizen's right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
Juneteenth was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, when the Congress enacted and President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law.
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