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What is Juneteenth? The story behind the federal holiday with Texas roots

Catch up on the holiday, the meaning behind it and how to celebrate locally with these stories.

June 19 is Juneteenth, a celebration of the end of slavery in Texas.

Juneteenth has long been celebrated nationwide and is now as an official federal holiday on June 20. Still, Juneteenth is particularly Texan, with roots in Galveston in 1865. The strongest advocate for its national recognition, Civil Rights icon and “the grandmother of Juneteenth,” is Opal Lee of Fort Worth. Catch up on the holiday, the meaning behind it, and how to celebrate locally with these stories.

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So what is Juneteenth?

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Every year on June 19, Americans remember the end of slavery after the Civil War. Although Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation declared all slaves in rebelling states were free on Jan. 1, 1863, many slave owners did not recognize the proclamation.

Even after Robert E. Lee’s surrender on April 9, 1865, news of the Union victory didn’t reach Texas until May. It wasn’t until Union Army Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston on June 18 and read the order announcing that all slaves were freed on June 19 that freedmen learned of their emancipation.

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Texas recognized Juneteenth as an official state holiday in 1980. Last year, President Joe Biden signed a law making Juneteenth a federal holiday, following decades of advocacy by Lee and others around the country.

Juneteenth 2022 will commemorate 157 years since the people of Galveston learned of their freedom and will be the second year of federal holiday status.

How does Dallas celebrate?

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The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center will hold its annual Juneteenth 4K Walk and Festival. The walk, which was previously a 3K, begins at 8:30 Saturday, June 17, and participants must register. The community festival, also beginning at 9 a.m., is free to attend and will feature a variety of entertainment and vendors to celebrate history, music, food, family and freedom. Learn more and register for the walk here.

The all-day North Texas Juneteenth Celebration will include live music, expo and performances on June 17. The annual event, sponsored by the Elite News and the Blair Foundation, kicks off with a community march from James Madison High School to Blair Park. Learn more about the festival here.

This makes me want to know more about my history. Where do I start?

Julieta Chiquillo wrote in a 2018 article: For decades, two black genealogists in Dallas have been unearthing the history of their families dating back centuries — and they did the bulk of their work before genealogy websites and DNA kits became a cultural phenomenon.

To mark Juneteenth, they're sharing a snapshot of their research and offering advice to beginners. Read more here.

Opal Lee’s Legacy

The Fort Worth native started advocating for federal recognition of Juneteenth when she was 86, almost 10 years before her mission was completed. She spent decades working as a community advocate for Black Texans before her historical walk from Fort Worth to Washington D.C. in 2016, when she walked two-and-a half miles a day to represent the two-and-a-half years it took the news of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach Texas.

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A national Juneteenth museum is planned to be built in Lee’s hometown.

Lee spoke to the Dallas Morning News in April to share her life’s story and many lessons after she was named the Dallas Morning News Texan of the Year in 2021. You can listen to the podcast here.

How is Juneteenth remembered today?

While celebrations of the holiday have been held in dozens of states for decades, Juneteenth has reached all corners of the country in the past few years.

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Author Joyce King sees the historical holiday is an opportunity for education as well as celebration. She wrote, “Passage is not an ending; it is a provocative new beginning.” She said that “Texas is at a major crossroads” and an example for the nation to see how the state and its people celebrate the holiday. Read her essay on the future of Juneteenth’s impact here.

Is this just about the legacy of slavery?

It’s more than that, Joyce King wrote in 2017: The history of how Black people celebrated that day, now known as Juneteenth, is part of the story of Texas and also the story of how Texas influences the rest of the country. Juneteenth celebrations abound in the U.S., commemorating freedom and offering us a way to talk about slavery. Read more here.