Slavery Didn't End On Juneteenth. Here's What You Should Know About This Important Day
Google Translater for Website Click on the dropdown button to translate. Translate this page: You can translate the content of this page by selecting a language in the select box. June 17, 20216:00 AM ET SHARON PRUITT-YOUNG It goes by many names. Whether you call it Emancipation Day, Freedom Day or the country's second Independence Day, Juneteenth is one of the most important anniversaries in our nation's history. On June 19, 1865, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, who had fought for the Union, led a force of soldiers to Galveston, Texas, to deliver a very important message: the war was finally over, the Union had won, and it now had the manpower to enforce the end of slavery. The announcement came two months after the effective conclusion of the Civil War, and even longer since Abraham Lincoln had first signed the Emancipation Proclamation, but many enslaved black people in Texas still weren't free, even after that day. That was 156 years