The Importance of Juneteenth

The Importance of
Juneteenth

Black History is American History

Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom, it commemorates the day when all enslaved African-Americans were emancipated from
the bondage of chattel slavery.

 

On January 1, 1863, enslaved people in the Confederate States were declared legally free by the Emancipation Proclamation.
Even though freedom was given to the enslaved population in the Confederate states, it wouldn’t be implemented in most of
these areas due to being under Confederate control during the Civil War. Freedom finally came to all enslaved people in the
Confederate territories on June 19, 1865. When in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, 2000 Union troops in Galveston
Bay granted freedom to the state’s enslaved African-Americans by executive decree. This day became to be celebrated
henceforth as "Juneteenth," by the newly freed people of Texas.

 

Only through the Thirteenth Amendment did emancipation become national policy It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864,
and by the House on January 31, 1865. The amendment was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on February 1, 1865. Then
ratified on December 6, 1865, it was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments, adopted following the American Civil War.