On June 19, 1865, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and read aloud General Order No. 3.

Lincoln enacted the Emancipation Proclamation to go into effect on January 1, 1863. General Lee surrendered at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, and Lincoln was assassinated on April 15, 1865.

It was 160 years ago that enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed — after the Civil War's end and two years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.

It was 160 years ago that enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed — after the Civil War's end and two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

The slaves had come to San Bernardino in 1852 with their owner, Robert Smith, part of the Mormon founding of the community.

Bluffton held a Juneteenth luncheon and educational session for town employees. The town presented a proclamation to the Bluffton MLK Observance Committee declaring June 19, 2025, as Juneteenth Day.

Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery in the United States by commemorating June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas.