You may be asking yourself, ‘What is Juneteenth?’. If you’re one of those people, don’t worry – you’re definitely not alone. Generally, Juneteenth is understood to be a holiday celebrating the emancipation of enslaved Black people. This is true, but more specifically, Juneteenth celebrates June 19th, 1885; the day Union soldiers entered Texas and officially declared enslaved Black people free. You see, despite popular wide-spread belief, Abraham Lincoln’s famous Emancipation Proclamation of 1963 did not result in unilateral freedom of enslaved Black people across the States all at once. So, for many Black people in Confederate States, freedom came much later. Thus, Juneteenth!
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