Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Deriving its name from combining June and nineteenth, it is celebrated on the anniversary of the order by Major General Gordon Granger proclaiming freedom for enslaved people in Texas on June 19, 1865.

For those who may be less familiar with the significance of this day, we provide the following information to gain greater knowledge and understanding.

On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln announced that the Emancipation Proclamation would go into effect on January 1, 1863, promising freedom to enslaved people in all of the rebellious parts of Southern states of the Confederacy. Texas was included, but not federally held territories such as Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia. Enforcement of the Proclamation generally relied upon the advance of Union troops. Texas, as the most remote state of the former Confederacy, had seen an expansion of slavery because the presence of Union troops was low as the American Civil War ended; thus, the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation had been slow and inconsistent there prior to Granger’s order. Although the Emancipation Proclamation declared an end to slavery in the Confederate States, it did not end slavery in the states that remained in the Union. For a short while after the fall of the Confederacy, slavery remained legal in two of the Union Border States – Delaware and Kentucky. Those enslaved people were freed with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished chattel slaver nationwide on December 6, 1865.  Source:  Wikipedia

Thomas A. Tanghe, City Manager