In recent years, Juneteenth (celebrated annually on June 19) has become a weekend celebrating food, family, and music, but it was not always so.
The origins of the holiday, a portmanteau of June and nineteenth, hearken back to President Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, effectively freeing enslaved people across the United States — but until June 19, 1865, not every enslaved person was free. It took an order from Major General Gordon Granger enforcing the proclamation in Galveston, Texas, to effectively freeing the still-enslaved people of Texas and elsewhere.
In 2021, President Biden declared Juneteenth a federal holiday, but Pa. Governor Tom Wolf recognized the date in 2019 as a state holiday. Long before these recognitions, though, Black families around the country have marked the date with colorful gatherings, symbolic meals, and more.
Though the…
