United Way of Pennsylvania is celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 and commemorating the end of slavery on June 19th, 1865.
On January 1st, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring that:
"all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free;"
marking the beginning of the end to our Nation's Civil War.
We celebrate Juneteenth, a monument event occurring 2 years after President Lincoln's decree, as the day the last slaves in Texas were set free. Major General Gordon Granger and his Union troops landed in Galveston, Texas on June 19th, 1865. They announced the Civil War had ended, and that all enslaved Black people were free by executive decree.
Juneteenth is a day of celebration for Black communities all across America. It is a day for recognition of our American history and a day for all people to take time to reflect, acknowledge, and educate.