Juneteenth, also known as the second Independence Day or Emancipation Day, is our eleventh and newest federal holiday, following the creation of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day in 1983. President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law on June 17, 2021, officially making June 19 a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, 2,000 federal troops marched into Texas, the westernmost state in the Confederacy and the last state to acknowledge the end of slavery despite the fact that the Civil War had already ended. Major General Gordon Granger read General Orders No. 3 to the gathered populace of Galveston: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.” Granger’s proclamation in Galveston came two and a half years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and two months after General Lee’s surrender at the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia. Today, Juneteenth is a holiday of freedom, hope and commitment to equality. Click here to learn more about Juneteenth; click on the book jackets below for links to our catalog.
"Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won; you earn it and win it in every generation." Coretta Scott King
“Juneteenth has never been a celebration of victory or an acceptance of the way things are. It’s a celebration of progress. It’s an affirmation that despite the most painful parts of our history, change is possible—and there is still so much work to do.” President Barack Obama