On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” However, freedom did not come immediately for hundreds of thousands of enslaved people. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865 that Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, more than 2 years after it was declared. Part of Juneteenth is to remember that the true end of slavery did not [...]