Historians cite three scenarios that might have resulted in it taking two and a half years for enslaved people in Texas to learn they were free. In the first, the delay was orchestrated to keep slave labor on the plantations. The second scenario claims that the messenger entrusted with delivering the emancipation message was murdered enroute. The third scenario speculates that union soldiers deliberately took their time communicating the news so that cotton farmers could reap the benefits of one last cotton harvest.

No matter which version you believe, the importance of June 19, 1865 cannot be overstated.

Tens of thousands of Black soldiers had joined the Union army to fight for their freedom and thousands of them died for the ideal. But it wasn’t until Major General Gordon Granger reached Galveston and assumed jurisdiction over the state of Texas that the fruit of their service was actually realized.

Even though Granger’s news was met with resistance and punctuated by the rampant murders of newly-freed slaves, the people turned those continued hardships into a reason for celebration. Freedom, for all it cost, was still a precious right to be celebrated. Black people have been celebrating Juneteenth—also called Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Emancipation Day—the end of slavery, their strength, and the promise of freedom for 155 years.

Currently, 47 states and the District of Columbia celebrate Juneteenth, a portmanteau or word created from the combination of June and nineteenth. Illinois recently became the 47th state to advance legislation to make Juneteenth a paid state holiday; Cook County led the way with an ordinance amendment that passed unanimously in December 2020. Efforts are underway nationally to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, an objective that has gained traction in the light of the civil unrest that has punctuated the past year.