Each year June 19 is the commemoration of "Juneteenth," which is also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Emancipation Day. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was signed more than two years prior, slavery continued in Texas and in many other states. It was on June 19, 1865 that Gordon Granger, a Union general, arrived in Galveston, Texas to formally announce and enforce the freedom of enslaved people. One year later in 1866, the now free African-Americans in Texas celebrated with barbecues, music, prayer services, and more. The annual celebration later spread from Texas to other states and is considered the longest-running African American holiday.
African-American Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations by
Provides information about the history and celebration of more than 100 holidays, festivals, and other events observed by Americans of African descent, including Juneteenth. Features include narrative overviews, chronology of historical events related to holidays and festivals, calendar and geographical listings of observances, bibliography, and contact information and web sites.
All Different Now by
In 1865, members of a family start their day as slaves, working in a Texas cotton field, and end it celebrating their freedom on what came to be known as Juneteenth.
Juneteenth: a novel by
The story of a black man who passes for white and becomes a race-baiting U.S. senator. When he is shot on the Senate floor, the first visitor in hospital is a black musician-turned-preacher who raised him. As the two men talk, their respective stories come out. An unfinished novel by the author of Invisible Man.