Why we celebrate Juneteenth.
Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day on June 19, 1865, two years after President Abraham Lincoln emancipated enslaved Africans in America, Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas with news of freedom. More than 250,000 African Americans embraced freedom by executive decree in what became known as Juneteenth or Freedom Day. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States.