After the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862 and the end of the Civil War in April 1865, it took a couple of months more for word of the end of African-American enslavement to reach Texas. When Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in June, 1865 with his Union troops in Galveston, TX, he issued "General Order No. 3":
"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."
For decades, calls to establish June 19th -- "Juneteenth" -- as a Federal holiday were ignored. The heroic and tireless efforts of one African-American woman in particular, Opal Lee, finally achieved that goal when President Biden signed legislation on June 17, 2021 establishing Juneteenth as a Federal holiday.
