Juneteenth isn’t just a date on the calendar—it’s a powerful reminder that freedom isn’t free—it’s been fought for, delayed, denied, and taken back.
Juneteenth marks the day freedom finally came to Texas, when on June 19, 1865, a Union general informed enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas that they were free—two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” the saying goes, and that two-and-a-half-year gap is a good reminder of how true this is. The official announcement, called General Order No. 3, declared the “absolute equality of personal rights” and ended slavery in Texas—on paper. In reality, many enslavers delayed telling people or resisted enforcement.
Not everyone found out they were free right away. Many of those who were enslaved were forced to work through another harvest season. But Black communities started celebrating as early as 1866, observing Juneteenth, also known as “Emancipation Day,” “Freedom Day” and “Jubilee Day,” a reference to the biblical period following seven sabbatical cycles that resulted in canceling debts and freeing the enslaved.
The holiday has been called “America’s Second Independence Day.” Juneteenth grew during the Great Migration. As Black families moved north and west, they took Juneteenth with them—spreading it to places like Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. Texas made it an official holiday in 1980, and it became a federal holiday in 2021 following the push by advocates like Opal Lee, known as the “grandmother of Juneteenth.”
In speaking on the significance of Juneteenth, Lee said, “Freedom is for everyone. I think freedom should be celebrated from the 19th of June to the Fourth of July; however, none of us are free until we are all free. We are not free yet, and Juneteenth is a symbol of that.”
NOW members know the wisdom of these words—and of wise elders like Opal Lee—and we can use this year’s observance of Juneteenth to remember how precious and hard-won those freedoms are, and how hard we must work today to stop the backtracking on the gains we’ve made. Juneteenth is a call to action, learning, and reflection that we must continue to answer today and every day.
