Also known as Freedom Day or Jubilee Day, Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day that the last enslaved Black Americans were freed in all of the US. While emancipation had officially begun in 1863 and the Civil War ended two months prior to Juneteenth, it was not until this day in 1865 that the last slaves were freed from bondage in the state of Texas, where the Union army was slower to arrive in sufficient numbers
to enforce Lincoln's famed proclamation.
47 states have recognized Juneteenth as a state holiday or as a day of ceremonial observance, Texas being first in 1980 and others following mostly in the early 2000s. Apple's holiday calendar has also been showing the date for a few years already.
Popular recognition of Juneteenth has grown rapidly in the last month, and while it has long been celebrated in the Black community, historical awareness of the holiday among non-Black Americans has been extremely low.
During the Black Lives Matter protests of recent years (and especially those of 2020),
an increasing association of Juneteenth with the larger BLM movement has emerged.
