16th annual Juneteenth

From 16th annual Juneteenth Website:

"Juneteenth is a day of reflection, a day of renewal, a pride-filled day. It is a moment in time taken to appreciate the African American experience. It is inclusive of all races, ethnicities and nationalities as nothing is more comforting than the hand of a friend."
- www.********.***

Juneteenth originated as a celebration of the ending of slavery in Texas. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger and 1,800 troops of the Union Army arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced that the Civil War had ended and all slaves were free. Even though President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had gone into effect on January 1, 1863, freeing all slaves in those states in rebellion against the United States, for various reasons the decree had not yet taken effect in Texas.