Dating back to 1865, June 19th marks the date Major General Gordon Granger landed in Galveston, TX with the news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.
2020 marks the 155th Anniversary of what is now celebrated as Juneteenth. Historically these celebrations have consisted of rodeos, fishing, barbecuing and baseball and almost always focused on education and self-improvement. On January 1, 1980, Juneteenth became an official state holiday through the efforts of Al Edwards, an African American state legislator.
You can learn more about Juneteenth below:
National Museum of African American History and Culture
https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/celebrating-juneteenth
Library of Congress
https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2015/06/celebrating-juneteenth/
We also invite you to watch the recorded webinar from November 2018 titled “A Tree Without Roots Cannot Grow: Assisting African American Patrons with Beginning Genealogy Research”