Audience
Student
Juneteenth
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, not all slaves in Confederate territories were freed. On June 19, 1865, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was enacted, 200,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas. The troops freed 250,000 enslaved Black people. The former Galveston slaves celebrated the day they were set free and the first Juneteenth celebration was held the next year.
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