Thousands of enslaved African Americans in Texas learned they were free on June 19, 1865 — two months after the Civil War ended.
On that day, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston to announce and enforce General Order 3. The order, in part, informed everyone that effective immediately, "All slaves are free." The first Juneteenth celebrations began the next year.
President Abraham Lincoln began the process of freeing enslaved people in America's Confederate states through the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863. But it took the incremental advance and victory of Union troops to enforce that order. Also, it's likely that slave owners deliberately withheld the news of freedom from those they enslaved.
Also known as Jubilee Day, celebrations on June 19 grew and spread nationwide over time. In fact, Texas made Juneteenth — short for "June nineteenth" — a state holiday in 1979. But the holiday didn't gain widespread attention until America faced a 21st-century civil rights movement.
Companies compelled to action during 2020 summer of unrest
America's most recent reckoning with our complicated, oppressive, and sometimes violent racial and civil rights history spurred organizations to speak up and take action starting in the summer of 2020. Black Minneapolis resident George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in May 2020. His death sparked widespread protests and increased interest in the Juneteenth holiday.
President Joe Biden signed the bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday into law just two days before the holiday's inaugural federal observance on June 19, 2021. The change became effective so quickly that some large organizations, including the Postal Service, said they didn't have time to pause their business operations or plan any events to commemorate the holiday.
In response, many organizations said