USU Professors Share a Brief History of Juneteenth

Juneteenth – also known as Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Jubilee Day and Liberation Day – honors, commemorates and celebrates the ending of the institution of chattel slavery in the United States of America.

Although Abraham Lincoln declared the end of slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and the Thirteenth Amendment was signed into law in March of 1865, it was not until June 19, 1865, that news of emancipation reached Galveston, Texas, through the issuing of General Order No. 3, by Union Army General Gordon Granger. It is from that day Juneteenth gets is name, as it is a blend of the words "June" and "nineteenth."

Juneteenth serves to recognize the injustice and inhumane treatment of enslaved people, while commemorating and celebrating their freedom.