Juneteenth, also known as Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, and Black Independence Day was first celebrated by freed slaves on June 19, 1866, in Texas a year after slavery had ended there. President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, ending slavery in January of 1863—two and half years earlier.

It wasn’t until 1980 that the holiday was officially recognized anywhere. Texas became the first state to designate Juneteenth as a state holiday. In 2002, eight other states joined Texas and Missouri followed suit in 2003. In 2008, fifteen more states. 

By 2019, 47 states and the District of Columbia had finally recognized or commemorated the day in some way. Between 2020 and 2022, five states (Texas, New York, Virginia, Washington, and Illinois) made it a paid holiday for state employees. 

But for more than a century and half between 1866 and 2022, Juneteenth has primarily been a celebration confined to Black communities all across America

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