On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce that all enslaved people were free. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. Juneteenth marks the day that the last enslaved African Americans finally learned of their freedom.
This day became known as Juneteenth, an annual commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States.
*Graphic from the Defense Health Agency