Juneteenth (Juneteenth National Independence Day) commemorates the emancipation of the enslaved African Americans and is often observed for celebrating African American culture. Juneteenth is celebrated annually on June 19. It is also called Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, and Black Independence Day.
On January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared more than three million slaves living in Texas and other Southern States of the Confederacy, not in the Union, to be free. More than two years would pass before the news reached Texas. It was not until Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, that the state’s residents finally learned that slavery had been abolished. The last enslaved people were freed.
Celebrations first involved church-centered community gatherings in Texas, then spread across the South, becoming more commercialized, centering on a food festival. They have continued across the United States, including parts of Mexico, into the 21st century. 
Cultural celebrations typically include prayer and religious services, public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, historical reenactments, and the reading of works by noted African American writers such as Ralph Ellison and Maya Angelou. It is a day to celebrate, educate, and to agitate through family gatherings and reunions, cookouts and street fairs with music and dancing.
Juneteenth became a state holiday in Texas in 1980, and in 2021 was made a federal holiday.
In celebration of Juneteenth and in preparation for July 4th, share your favorite cookout, barbeque, or potluck dish or recipe!
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