Event Details

JUNETEENTH, or Freedom Day

12:00 am

Juneteenth, or Freedom Day, after the surrender of General Robert E. Lee on April 9, 1865, the Civil War was officially over, and on June 19 General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston with 1800 Union soldiers and proceeded to take control of the state and put the Emancipation Proclamation in effect, freeing the 250,000 slaves that existed in the state of Texas. The recently freed slaves took to the streets to celebrate, thus originating the holiday that would become known as Juneteenth, which literally means "June Nineteenth.