June 19, 2026: Juneteenth: “We have simply got to make people aware that none of us are free until we’re all free, and we aren’t free yet.” - Opal Lee, "Mother of Juneteenth"

On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce the emancipation of all enslaved people. The event took place more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and two months after the April surrender of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to Union forces. 

This is what became known as Juneteenth. A holiday, long celebrated in many African American communities, that takes place every year to commemorate the abolition of slavery in Texas and the other Confederate States of America.

On June 17, 2021, the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act was signed into law. Juneteenth, also known as Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, and Black Independence Day, became designated a federal holiday in the United States to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.

Much of the efforts to accomplish this federal designation must be attributed to the decades of work of one woman, 95-year-old Opal Lee, known as the “grandmother of Juneteenth” who “at the age of 89, … decided her new life mission was … to spread the word about Juneteenth to everybody.””…she decided to start with a walking campaign in cities along a route from her home in Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C. …Over several weeks, Lee arrived in cities where she’d been invited to speak and walked 2½ miles to symbolize the 2½ years that it took for enslaved people in Texas to learn they were free.” Lee never gave up and was present on June 17, 2021, for signing Juneteenth into law.

Lee’s endurance is symbolic of the history of a people who never gave up hope, even when facing uncertain times. Generations of African Americans will remain forever grateful for her efforts.

Juneteenth holds a variety of meanings for people of African Descent. Please read on as members of the Mercy community of African Descent reflect on the question, “What does Juneteenth mean to you?”

Learn more about Juneteenth on the Resource Page using this link:

https://sistersofmercy.org/resource/juneteenth-resources/?bbeml=tp-33LLzn_agkuuzteNZtafCw.jEB2gDP42A0WDwPxUPtc3XA.rBtDdhKfOU0SAj9xYlfT2Yw.l45YQKg7OIEy-MsWNPInGCg

National Museum of African American History & Culture: https://nmaahc.si.edu/juneteenth

Juneteenth: Freedom at Last

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOOguH71--E&t=1s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR3WqYI6wco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJKzdksodNY&t=5s