Celebrating American Freedom Means Celebrating Juneteenth |
America 250
Celebrating American Freedom Means Celebrating Juneteenth
June 19 commemorates the day the final 250,000 people held in slavery gained their freedom. It deserves a place in any celebration of American liberty.
Joe Lancaster | 6.19.2026 8:15 AM
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(Illustration: Fahad Ahmad/Dreamstime)
Next month, America will commemorate the date, 250 years ago, that its founders signed the Declaration of Independence, declaring in the process "that all men are created equal." And yet it took nearly another century for the new nation to apply those words to African Americans.
As we celebrate our country and its tradition of individual liberty, we should also celebrate June 19, or Juneteenth, the day that freedom finally extended to black Americans.
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing everyone held in slavery, but it could only be enforced in places under Union control. As a result, it took time for news of emancipation to reach the entire enslaved population.
Texas was the final Confederate state to surrender, and on June 19, 1865, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger announced the end of the war, and with it, the end of chattel slavery. At the time, Texas' enslaved population totaled 250,000, and Granger's announcement freed them all at once.
Over the years, the date became cause for celebration, first in Texas and then more broadly: In 2004, then-President George W. Bush issued a statement on Juneteenth, a date he said "recognizes the progress America has made in ensuring that our Nation lives up to our founding principles of liberty, equality, and justice, and........