Juneteenth

Juneteenth, a combination of the words June and 19th, is also known by statute, Juneteenth National Independence Day. It commemorates the day in 1865, when a Union General arrived in Galveston, Texas, (2 years later) to inform the last known group of enslaved African Americans of their freedom under President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.

The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture‘s 2025 Juneteenth event is titled “Power in the past, strength in the future!”