1865: Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19th of that year, Union soldiers, under Major General Gordon Granger, arrived in Galveston, Texas, bringing the news of the end of the Civil War and the emancipation of the enslaved people. Notably, Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, who spent her youth in Lansing, Michigan, spoke about Juneteenth during a commemoration at Manhattan's African Burial Ground in 2014.