Juneteenth celebrates the date—June 19,1865—of the announcement in Galveston of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Gordon Granger, proclaiming freedom from slavery in Texas, two-and-a-half years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and two months after Lee’s surrender formally ended the Civil War. Implementation in Texas had been slow and inconsistent before Granger’s announcement as enforcement generally followed the advance of Union troops, and Texas, the most remote of the slave states, had a sparse Union military presence throughout the war. Although emancipation didn’t happen overnight for everyone—in some cases, enslavers withheld… Read More