Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation Day, celebrates the end of slavery for all in the United States. On June 19, 1865, U.S. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, TX and read a general order that "all slaves are free" making Texas the last state in the United States to emancipate its slaves. This was two years after Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was effective on January 1, 1863. The Black community in Galveston celebrated, and June 19th was again celebrated in subsequent years being dubbed Juneteenth.
Browse more photographs of a picnic during an Emancipation Day celebration in 1900 from Austin History Center.
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The end of slavery in America by Children's Books
Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free by 
