In 2021, President Biden signed into law a new federal holiday – Juneteenth. While some in the nation were unsure of what that meant, others celebrated the amazing achievement. Whether citizens are aware of it, or not the holiday is one of deep cultural significance to the United States as a whole, particularly for the African-American community.

Juneteenth started as a commemoration of the issuing of General Order No. 3, enforcing the emancipation of enslaved persons, given by Major General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, in Texas. Since that day, however, the celebrations commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States have grown exponentially.

Over the decades the small celebration grew from local communities to the entire state of Texas, and now, the entire country, and serves as a reminder of not only the nationwide emancipation of enslaved African-Americans but of the subsequent struggles and oppression this community has overcome and is still overcoming in the nation today.