Fashion Reverie celebrates a Happy Juneteenth. For those who are not aware of this latest federal holiday, Juneteenth celebrates the date in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced the end of slavery—more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was announced.
While President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, it wasn’t immediately enforced in Confederate-controlled areas like Texas. It took until the end of the Civil War for Major General Gordon Granger to arrive in Galveston and read General Orders No. 3, officially notifying over 250,000 enslaved Black Texans they were free.
Juneteenth has been celebrated in African American communities for many decades but was not turned into a national holiday until 2021, signed into law by President Joseph Biden. Historically marked by prayer, spiritual singing, and reading the Emancipation Proclamation, festivities have evolved to include parades, family reunions, and historical reenactments.
—Staff
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