Editing Juneteenth (section)

===Early history===
==== The Civil War and celebrations of emancipation ====
{{further|Slave states and free states|History of slavery in the United States by state|End of slavery in the United States|Emancipation Day#United States}}

During the American Civil War (1861–1865), emancipation came at different times in different parts of the [[Southern United States]]. Large celebrations of emancipation, often called [[Jubilee]]s (recalling the biblical [[Jubilee (biblical)|Jubilee]], in which enslaved people were freed), took place on September&nbsp;22, January&nbsp;1, July&nbsp;4, August&nbsp;1, April&nbsp;6, and November&nbsp;1, among other dates. When emancipation finally came to [[Texas]], on June 19, 1865, as the southern rebellion collapsed, celebration was widespread.<ref>{{Cite web|date=June 18, 2020|title=Juneteenth and the Emancipation Proclamation|url=https://daily.jstor.org/juneteenth-and-the-emancipation-proclamation/|website=JSTOR Daily|language=en-US|access-date=May 4, 2021|archive-date=May 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505001848/https://daily.jstor.org/juneteenth-and-the-emancipation-proclamation/|url-status=live}}</ref> While that date did not actually mark the unequivocal end of slavery, even in Texas, June 19 came to be a day of shared commemoration across the United States{{spaced ndash}}created, preserved, and spread by ordinary African Americans{{spaced ndash}}of slavery's wartime demise.<ref name="gates"/>

==== End of slavery in Texas ====
{{Further|Emancipation Proclamation}}

Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in the midst of the Civil War on September 22, 1862, declaring that if the rebels did not end the fighting and rejoin the Union, all enslaved people in the Confederacy would be freed on the first day of the year.<ref name=":10">{{Cite web|title=Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, 1862|url=https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals_iv/sections/preliminary_emancipation_proclamation.html|access-date=June 3, 2020|website=The National Archives|archive-date=June 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610202334/https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals_iv/sections/preliminary_emancipation_proclamation.html|url-status=live}}</ref> On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all enslaved people in the Confederate States of America in rebellion and not in Union hands were freed.<ref name=":10" />{{efn|name="war powers"|Enslaved people in Union hands had not been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation due to the limited scope of presidential "war powers". See [[Emancipation Proclamation#Coverage]] for more information.}}

Planters and other slaveholders from eastern states had migrated into Texas to escape the fighting, and many brought enslaved people with them, increasing by the thousands the enslaved population in the state at the end of the Civil War.<ref name="gates"/> Although most lived in rural areas, more than 1,000 resided in [[Galveston, Texas|Galveston]] or [[Houston, Texas|Houston]] by 1860, with several hundred in other large towns.<ref name=barr24>Barr (1996), p. 24.</ref> By 1865, there were an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in Texas.<ref name="gates"/><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Garrett-Scott|first=Shennette|date=2013|title="When Peace Come": Teaching the Significance of Juneteenth|journal=Black History Bulletin|volume=76|issue=2|pages=19–25|doi=10.1353/bhb.2013.0015 |jstor=24759690|s2cid=245657706 }}</ref>

Despite the surrender of Confederate General-in-Chief [[Robert E. Lee]] at [[Battle of Appomattox Court House|Appomattox Court House]] on April&nbsp;9, 1865, the western Confederate [[Army of the Trans-Mississippi]] did not formally surrender until June 2.<ref name="gates"/> On the morning of June&nbsp;19, 1865, [[Union Army|Union]] Major General [[Gordon Granger]] arrived on the island of Galveston<ref name="auto1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JFI3AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA929|title=Serial set (no. 3100-3500)|date=July 20, 1896}}</ref> to take command of the more than 2,000 federal troops recently landed in the department of Texas to enforce the emancipation of its enslaved population and oversee [[Reconstruction Era|Reconstruction]], nullifying all laws passed within Texas during the war by Confederate lawmakers.<ref name="auto1" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/06/18/juneteenth-holiday-history-slavery-george-floyd/|title=Juneteenth celebrates 'a moment of indescribable joy': Slavery's end in Texas|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|first=DeNeen L.|last=Brown|date=June 19, 2020|access-date=June 29, 2020|archive-date=June 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628161327/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/06/18/juneteenth-holiday-history-slavery-george-floyd/|url-status=live}}</ref> The order informed all Texans that, in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all enslaved people were free:

{{Blockquote|The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.<ref name = "TXJ19"/>|sign=|source=}}

Longstanding urban legend places a historic reading of General Order No.&nbsp;3 at [[Ashton Villa]]; but no historical evidence supports this claim.<ref>{{Cite news |first=Ed |last=Cotham |url=https://www.galvnews.com/opinion/guest_columns/article_73af8892-f75d-11e3-8626-001a4bcf6878.html |title=Juneteenth: Four myths and one great truth |newspaper=[[The Daily News (Texas)|The Daily News]] |date=June 18, 2014 |access-date=June 29, 2020 |archive-date=June 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628042023/https://www.galvnews.com/opinion/guest_columns/article_73af8892-f75d-11e3-8626-001a4bcf6878.html |url-status=live }}</ref> There is no evidence that Granger or any of his troops ''proclaimed'' the Ordinance by reading it aloud. All indications are that copies of the Ordinance were posted in public places, including the Negro Church on Broadway, since renamed [[Reedy Chapel A.M.E. Church]].<ref name="Burnett2020">{{cite web |last1=Burnett |first1=John |title=Four enduring myths about Juneteenth are not based on facts |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/06/20/1105945119/four-enduring-myths-about-juneteenth-are-not-based-on-facts |access-date=June 21, 2022 |website=[[NPR]] |date=June 20, 2022 |archive-date=June 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220621030938/https://www.npr.org/2022/06/20/1105945119/four-enduring-myths-about-juneteenth-are-not-based-on-facts |url-status=live }}</ref>

On June&nbsp;21, 2014, the Galveston Historical Foundation and [[Texas Historical Commission]] erected a Juneteenth plaque where the Osterman Building once stood signifying the location of Major General Granger's Union Headquarters believed to be where he issued his general orders.<ref>{{Cite news|first=Harvey|last=Rice|url=https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Galveston-unveils-long-awaited-Juneteenth-marker-5569640.php|title=Galveston unveils long-awaited Juneteenth marker|date=June 22, 2014|newspaper=[[Houston Chronicle]]|access-date=June 29, 2020|archive-date=June 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629050045/https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Galveston-unveils-long-awaited-Juneteenth-marker-5569640.php|url-status=live}}</ref>

Although this event commemorates the end of slavery, emancipation for the remaining enslaved in two Union [[Border states (American Civil War)|border states]], Delaware and Kentucky, would not come until December&nbsp;6, 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified;{{sfn|Wynn|2009|p=}}{{efn|name="war powers"}}{{efn|name="Kentucky"|Unlike in Texas, where slavery grew during the war, in Kentucky, due largely to Union military measures and escapes to Union lines, the number of those enslaved fell by over 70%.<ref name=Harrison>{{Cite journal |last=Harrison |first=Lowell H. |date=Fall 1983 |title=Slavery in Kentucky: A Civil War Casualty |journal=The Kentucky Review |publisher=[[University of Kentucky]] |location=Lexington, Kentucky |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=38–40}}</ref>}} furthermore, thousands of black slaves were not freed until after the [[Reconstruction Treaties]] of late 1866, when tribes such as the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, and others were forced to sign new treaties that required them to free their slaves.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Donald A. Grinde, Jr. |author2=Quintard Taylor |author1-link=Donald A. Grinde Jr. |author2-link=Quintard Taylor |title=Red vs Black: Conflict and Accommodation in the Post Civil War Indian Territory, 1865–1907 |journal=[[American Indian Quarterly]] |date=Summer 1984 |volume=8 |issue=3 |page=212 |doi=10.2307/1183929 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1183929 |access-date=February 23, 2024 |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] |jstor=1183929 |language=en |issn=0095-182X |oclc=499289594 |quote=New treaties negotiated in 1866 abolished slavery […]  The most significant accomplishment of the treaties was the liberation of 7,000 black slaves |archive-date=February 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230216061123/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1183929 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The freedom of formerly enslaved people in Texas was given state law status in a series of [[Texas Supreme Court]] decisions between 1868 and 1874.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Campbell |first1=Randolph |date=1984 |title=The End of Slavery in Texas: A Research Note |journal=Southwestern Historical Quarterly |publisher=[[Texas State Historical Association]] |location=Austin, Texas|volume=88 |issue=1 |pages=71–80 |jstor=30239840}}</ref>

<gallery widths="180px" heights="200px">
File:Gordon Granger - Brady-Handy.jpg|Major General [[Gordon Granger]] issued General Order No. 3 formally informing Texas residents that slavery had ended.
File:General order No. 3 of June 19, 1865.jpg|[[General Order No. 3]], June 19, 1865
</gallery>

==== Early Juneteenth celebrations ====
Formerly enslaved people in Galveston rejoiced after General Order No. 3.<ref name=":0">{{cite news |date=June 27, 1974 |title=It Happened: June 19. |newspaper=Milwaukee Star |volume=14 |number=42 |url=http://www.infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/readex/doc?p=EANX&docref=image/v2%3A12A7AE31A7B3CA6B%40EANX-12C56130F92C6210%402442226-12C5613126726070%404-12C561320D6419C0%40It%2BHappened%2B%253A%2BJune%2B19 |access-date=May 5, 2020 |archive-date=June 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200620230423/https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/readex/user/login?destination=doc%3Fp%3DEANX&docref=image%2Fv2%3A12A7AE31A7B3CA6B%40EANX-12C56130F92C6210%402442226-12C5613126726070%404-12C561320D6419C0%40It%20Happened%20%3A%20June%2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> One year later, on June&nbsp;19, 1866, [[Freedman|freedmen]] in Texas organized the first of what became annual commemorations of "Jubilee Day".<ref name="TXJ19" /> Early celebrations were used as political rallies to give voting instructions to newly freed African Americans.<ref name=":5">{{cite news|date=June 13, 1976|title=Juneteenth Adds Continuity to Black Tradition|pages=100|work=Fort Worth Star-Telegram|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49828863/fort-worth-star-telegram/|access-date=June 4, 2020|via=[[Newspapers.com]] {{open access}}|archive-date=June 4, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604184251/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49828863/fort-worth-star-telegram/|url-status=live}}</ref> Other independence observances occurred on January&nbsp;1 or&nbsp;4.{{sfn|Wilson|2006|p=239}}

In some cities, Black people were barred from using public parks because of state-sponsored [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation]] of facilities. Across parts of Texas, freed people pooled their funds to purchase land to hold their celebrations.<ref name="gates" /><ref name="TXJ19">{{cite web |url=http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ref/abouttx/juneteenth.html |title=Juneteenth |website=Texas State Library and Archives Commission |access-date=July 6, 2006 |archive-date=July 18, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060718135927/http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ref/abouttx/juneteenth.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The day was first celebrated in Austin in 1867 under the auspices of the [[Freedmen's Bureau]], and it had been listed on a "calendar of public events" by 1872.{{sfn|Wynn|2009|p=}} That year, Black leaders in Texas raised $1,000 for the purchase of {{Convert|10|acres|ha|abbr=|0}} of land, today known as Houston's [[Emancipation Park (Houston)|Emancipation Park]], to celebrate Juneteenth.{{sfn|Mustakeem|2007|p=}}

The observation was soon drawing thousands of attendees across Texas. In [[Limestone County, Texas|Limestone County]], an estimated 30,000 Black people celebrated at Booker T. Washington Park, established in 1898 for Juneteenth celebrations.{{sfn|Wynn|2009|p=}}{{sfn|Knight|2011|p=}} The Black community began using the word ''Juneteenth'' for Jubilee Day early in the 1890s.<ref name=":1" /> The word ''Juneteenth'' appeared in print in the ''[[Brenham Banner-Press|Brenham Weekly Banner]]'', a white newspaper from [[Brenham, Texas]], as early as 1891.<ref>{{cite news |title=The emancipation celebration |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/brenham-weekly-banner/21078844/ |access-date=19 June 2024 |work=[[Brenham Banner-Press|Brenham Weekly Banner]] |date=25 June 1891 |page=7 |quote=There was not so many colored people in the city as usual on Saturday evening, all of them, very near, being out at the 'Juneteenth siliibration.' |archive-date=June 19, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619020639/https://www.newspapers.com/article/brenham-weekly-banner/21078844/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Mentions of Juneteenth celebrations outside of Texas appeared as early as 1909 in [[Shreveport, Louisiana]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Article clipped from The Times (Shreveport, Louisiana) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-juneteenth-shreveport-la-1909/79844884/ |access-date=19 June 2024 |work=[[Shreveport Times|The Times]] |date=20 June 1909 |page=18 |quote=The entire colored population of the city is taking a holiday today, observing 'Juneteenth,' as they call it. |archive-date=June 19, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619020638/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-juneteenth-shreveport-la-1909/79844884/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Decline of celebrations during the Jim Crow era====
In the early 20th century, economic and political forces led to a decline in Juneteenth celebrations. From 1890 to 1908, Texas and all former Confederate states passed new constitutions or amendments that effectively [[Disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era|disenfranchised Black people]], excluding them from the political process. White-dominated state legislatures passed [[Jim Crow laws]] imposing second-class status.<ref name=":2">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nFTlBHBFYvEC&pg=PA15 |title=Way Up North in Louisville: African American Migration in the Urban South, 1930–1970 |last=Adams |first=Luther |year=2010 |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |isbn=978-0807899434}}</ref> Gladys L. Knight writes the decline in celebration was in part because "upwardly mobile blacks ... were ashamed of their slave past and aspired to [[Cultural assimilation|assimilate]] into mainstream culture. Younger generations of blacks, becoming further removed from slavery were occupied with school ... and other pursuits." Others who migrated to the [[Northern United States]] could not take time off or simply dropped the celebration.{{sfn|Knight|2011|p=}}

The [[Great Depression]] forced many Black people off farms and into the cities to find work, where they had difficulty taking the day off to celebrate. From 1936 to 1951, the [[Texas State Fair]] served as a destination for celebrating the holiday, contributing to its revival. In 1936, an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people joined the holiday's celebration in Dallas. In 1938, Governor of Texas [[James Burr V Allred|James Allred]] issued a proclamation stating in part:<ref name=":4">{{cite book |last=Wiggins |first=William H. Jr. |editor1-first=Francis Edward |editor1-last=Abernethy |editor2-first=Alan B. |editor2-last=Govenar |editor3-first=Patrick B. |editor3-last=Mullen |title=Juneteenth Texas |publisher=[[University of North Texas Press]] |location=Denton, Texas|pages=237–254 |chapter=Juneteenth: A Red Spot Day on the Texas Calendar |isbn=1574410180|date=1987}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=Whereas, the Negroes in the State of Texas observe June&nbsp;19 as the official day for the celebration of Emancipation from slavery; and

Whereas, June&nbsp;19, 1865, was the date when General [Gordon] Granger, who had command of the Military District of Texas, issued a proclamation notifying the Negroes of Texas that they were free; and

Whereas, since that time, Texas Negroes have observed this day with suitable holiday ceremony, except during such years when the day comes on a Sunday; when the Governor of the State is asked to proclaim the following day as the holiday for State observance by Negroes; and

Whereas, June&nbsp;19, 1938, this year falls on Sunday;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JAMES V. ALLRED, Governor of the State of Texas, do set aside and proclaim the day of June&nbsp;20, 1938, as the date for observance of
EMANCIPATION DAY
in Texas, and do urge all members of the Negro race in Texas to observe the day in a manner appropriate to its importance to them.|author=|title=|source=}}

Seventy thousand people attended a "Juneteenth Jamboree" in 1951.<ref name=":4" /> From 1940 through 1970, in the second wave of the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]], more than five million Black people left Texas, Louisiana and other parts of the South for the North and the West Coast. As historian [[Isabel Wilkerson]] writes, "The people from Texas took Juneteenth Day to Los Angeles, [[Oakland]], [[Seattle]], and other places they went."<ref>{{cite book |first=Isabel |last=Wilkerson |authorlink=Isabel Wilkerson |title=The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y03WKII5m7QC |location=New York City |publisher=[[Random House]] |date=2010 |isbn=9780679604075}}</ref> In 1945, Juneteenth was introduced in San Francisco by a migrant from Texas, Wesley Johnson.<ref name=":7">{{cite journal|first=Emily|last=Blanck|title=Galveston on San Francisco Bay: Juneteenth in the Fillmore District, 1945–2016|journal=[[Western Historical Quarterly]]|publisher=[[Utah State University]]|location=Logan, Utah|volume=50|issue=2|date=March 2019|pages=85–112|doi=10.1093/whq/whz003}}</ref>

During the 1950s and 1960s, the [[Civil Rights Movement]] focused the attention of African Americans on expanding freedom and integrating. As a result, observations of the holiday declined again, though it was still celebrated in Texas.<ref name=":5" />{{sfn|Wilson|2006|p=239}}

<gallery widths="200px" heights="160px">
File:Emancipation Day Celebration band, June 19, 1900.png|Band performing in Texas for Emancipation Day, 1900
File:Emancipation Day celebration - 1900-06-19.jpg|Celebration of Emancipation Day in 1900, Texas
File:Emancipation Day in Richmond, Virginia, 1905.jpg|Emancipation Day celebration in [[Richmond, Virginia]], 1905
</gallery>