what is juneteenth mean

Juneteenth is a significant holiday in the United States that commemorates the end of slavery. The name "Juneteenth" comes from the date June 19, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced that all enslaved African Americans in Texas were free. This event occurred more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and two months after the Civil War ended. Juneteenth symbolizes both the end of slavery in the last Confederate state and the beginning of a long struggle for freedom and equality for African Americans. It is sometimes called Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, or Juneteenth Independence Day, and is often regarded as America's second Independence Day. Since its origins in 1866, Juneteenth celebrations have included prayer, singing spirituals, wearing new clothes to symbolize freedom, parades, educational events, family gatherings, and picnics. Foods with red coloring are traditionally consumed, symbolizing ancestral strength and the blood shed by enslaved people. Juneteenth was officially declared a federal holiday in the United States in 2021, underscoring its importance as a day to remember the moral stain of slavery as well as the progress made and the ongoing journey toward racial justice.