Juneteenth

A view of a section of the 1865 Juneteenth General Order No. 3 that is displayed by the Dallas Historical Society at the Fair Park Hall of State in Dallas, Friday, June 6, 2025. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Juneteenth started with handbills proclaiming freedom. Here’s what they said

The origin of the Juneteenth celebrations marking the end of slavery in the U.S. goes back to an order issued as Union troops arrived in Texas at the end of the Civil War.
 
Visitors arrive at the National Monument to Freedom on Wednesday, June 19, 2024 in Montgomery, Ala. The monument is inscribed with 122,000 surnames that formerly enslaved people chose for themselves, as documented in the 1870 Census, after being emancipated at the Civil War's end. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)

On Juneteenth, monument dedicated in Alabama to those who endured slavery

 
Associated Press reporter Darren Sands, right, reads the names of United States Colored Troops regimental soldiers, including his great-great-great-great grandfather Hewlett Sands, at the African American Civil War Memorial as part of Juneteenth commemorations on Wednesday, June 19, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

On Juneteenth, a journalist honors ancestor at ceremony for Black soldiers who served in Civil War

 
Opal Lee sits in a rocking chair while waiting to give interviews on the porch of her new home in Fort Worth, Texas, Friday, June 14, 2024. Habitat for Humanity built Lee the home on the same lot where as a child a white mob destroyed her family's home driving them away. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Opal Lee gets keys to her new Texas home 85 years after a racist mob drove her family from that lot

 
Gladys Knight performs during a Juneteenth concert on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, June 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle join Biden for early Juneteenth celebration on White House lawn

 

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Alabama lawmakers vote to make Juneteenth an official state holiday

 
FILE - Kentucky Gov, Andy Beshear speaks in the Rotunda of the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort, Ky., Tuesday, March 26, 2024. With a stroke of his pen, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear took action Thursday to designate Juneteenth as a holiday for state executive branch workers and expand protections in state hiring and employment by banning discrimination based on hairstyles. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, file)

Kentucky governor takes action on Juneteenth holiday and against discrimination based on hairstyles

 

Juneteenth proclaimed state holiday again in Alabama, after bill to make it permanent falters

 

Opal Lee gets keys to her new Texas home 85 years after a racist mob drove her family from that lot

 

‘Grandmother of Juneteenth’ is gifted a new home

 

Juneteenth celebration in Oakland, California, turned violent when several people were shot

 

US President Biden celebrates Juneteenth holiday on White House South Lawn

 

Juneteenth’s roots go back to the document that declared freedom for the enslaved people in Texas