Emancipation Day | Black Independence Day | Juneteenth
June 19, 1865, marks the day that Black enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, were informed they had been declared free more than two years prior, when President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
In 2021, President Biden made Juneteenth the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was added in 1983. But annual celebrations of Emancipation Day date back to 1866 when the Freedman’s Bureau organized a celebration in Texas. Juneteenth (“June” + “19th”) became more widely celebrated within Black communities in the 1980s.
Where to Learn More
- National Museum of African American History and Culture – The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth
- Henry Louis Gates, Jr. – “What is Juneteenth?”
- The Juneteenth Foundation
Where to Celebrate
- Juneteenth in Da Rock, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, June 17 (Little Rock)
- Juneteenth Arkansas Festival, Kimbrough Family Foundation, June 17 (Little Rock)
- Freedom Festival, University of Arkansas Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, June 17 (Springdale)
- Food Giveaway, Arkansas Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission, June 19 (Jacksonville)