The Westchester Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute for Nonviolence

Juneteenth is the oldest national celebration of the ending of slavery in this country, and an illustration of how momentous events can be slow in coming to fruition. In some areas of the country, Juneteenth is celebrated for up to a month, but it centers around June 19, 1865, the day Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce that the Civil War was ended and the slaves were free, though technically they had been free for nearly three years. President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, first issued in September 1862, became official in 1863 but had little impact in Texas and other states where there were few troops present to enforce it.