Video Guide, Sources and Biographies

Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery and has long been a celebration of African American freedom. It marks the day–June 19, 1865–when Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved people that they were free. But Juneteenth is just one of many Emancipation Days celebrated in the United States.

African Americans learned about, and experienced, emancipation on different dates throughout US history, starting when Pennsylvania passed the Gradual Abolition Act in 1780.

When word spread that Britain abolished slavery in its colonies on August 1, 1834, African Americans marked the occasion with Emancipation Day celebrations. The holiday was used to mobilize the antislavery movement in the United States and inspire hope within the Black community. Newspaper Clipping from August 4 (12?), 1886

In the 1860s, the Civil War and the end of slavery in the United States gave rise to more Emancipation Days, but there was no single day selected for the holiday because enslaved peoples received the news of the Emancipation Proclamation at different times. General Orders No. 3

For some it was September 22, 1862–the day President Lincoln announced his intention to sign the Proclamation. For others, it was on January 1, 1863–the day the Proclamation was actually signed. In Texas, it was June 19, 1865–the day General Gordon Granger delivered the news in Galveston. These holidays have been given many names–Emancipation Day, Juneteenth, Freedom Day, Black Independence Day, and Jubilee Day. June 20 September 22 August 1

Despite their different names, the African American celebrations shared similarities. They often included prayers, sermons, speeches, barbecues, music, dancing, and often staged readings of the Emancipation Proclamation. The events were spaces of joy for the black community to socialize, proclaim their political identities, and organize efforts to fight against racial discrimination and demand full citizenship rights. Celebration of Abolition of Slavery Emancipation Day Celebration Band Emancipation Day Celebration Juneteenth Parade (1925)

Juneteenth gradually spread across the country as Black Texans migrated north and the holiday became commercialized in the 1920s and 1930s around food festivals.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, Black Minnesotans primarily celebrated Emancipation on January 1, September 22, and August 1. Black-owned newspapers, fraternal organizations, and social groups typically organized these events and invited all Minnesotans to attend.

One of the earliest celebrations took place on January 1, 1870 at the prestigious Pence Opera House in Minneapolis–a place normally reserved for whites only. Railroads and stage companies charged half-price for African Americans attending the event. Between 3-4,000 people were in attendance for the daylong festivity. 

Celebrations like these continued in Minnesota throughout the 20th century with several Emancipation picnics taking place on Harriet Island in Saint Paul.

In 1982, Juneteenth celebrations began in Minneapolis.

Emancipation Days were unofficial holidays for the African American community across the country. But as anti-black racism intensified throughout the 20th century black communities organized to gain state and federal recognition for their Emancipation Days. 

Texas recognized Juneteenth as a holiday in 1980, and many states slowly followed. Thanks to the work of activists like Opal Lee, Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021. And in 2023 Governor Tim Walz made it a state holiday in Minnesota.

There is no one voice or individual that can capture the meaning of Juneteenth. There are many voices that tell many stories about the holiday. What they all share is a commitment to celebrating Black freedom and resilience.

Historiographical Note. Historians have demonstrated the multidimensional nature of Emancipation Day celebrations. Some historians, like Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie, have situated these festivities in the context of the Black Atlantic, connecting US-based celebrations to British emancipation. These historians forward the argument that the global significance of emancipation helped to forge a Pan-African identity. Other historians focus their attention on the importance of commemorative events organized by Black communities as sites to congregate, educate, and agitate. It was at these sites that Black communities could bridge social gaps, voice political opinions, construct a usable past, and organize to demand rights and equality.

Primary Sources

• American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1940. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/about-this-collection/ 
• “Elks Emancipation Day Picnic All Set for August 4.” St. Paul Recorder. July 22, 1938, p 1.
• “Emancipation Celebration.” Minneapolis Daily Tribune. April 24, 1872, p. 1.
• “Emancipation Day.” The Appeal. December 20, 1890, p. 2.
• “Emancipation Day.” Western Appeal. October 1, 1887, p. 1.
• “Emancipation Day, Boston, August 2.” The Mantorville Express. August 14, 1858, p. 2.
• “Emancipation Day Picnic At Harriet Island August 4th.” Twin-City Herald. July 30, 1932, p. 2.
• “Pence Opera House, Hennepin and Second Street, Minneapolis.” 1870. Minnesota Historical Society Collections Online. https://www.mnhs.org/search/collections/record/08d97456-336b-4a69-9d1a-693cd33fde73 
• “The 4th Annual Juneteenth Celebration: Schedule of Events.” St. Paul Recorder. June 15, 1989, p. 5.

Secondary Sources

• Ards, Angela. “Juneteenth.” In The Divided States: Unraveling National Identities in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Laura J. Beard and Ricia Anne Chansky, 156–66. University of Wisconsin Press, 2023. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv31r2rzr.11.
• Bailey, Amber. “Days of Jubilee: Emancipation Day Celebrations in Chicago, 1853 to 1877.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1998-) 109, no. 4 (2016): 353–73. https://doi.org/10.5406/jillistathistsoc.109.4.0353.
• Baker, Lindsay and Julie P. Baker (eds). Till Freedom Cried Out: Memories of Texas Slave Life. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1997. 
• Baumgartner, Alice. South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War. Basic Books, 2022.
• Campbell, Randolph B. The Laws of Slavery in Texas. The University of Texas Press, 2010. 
• Campbell, Randolph B.  An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821-1865. Louisiana State University Press, 1991. (especially chapter 12 “The Civil War and ‘Juneteenth,’ 1861-1865: ‘Free, Free My Lord.”)
• Campbell, Randolph B.  “The End of Slavery in Texas: A Research Note.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 88, no. 1 (1984): 71–80. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30239840. 
• Cohen-Lack, Nancy. “A Struggle for Sovereignty: National Consolidation, Emancipation, and Free Labor in Texas, 1865.” The Journal of Southern History 58, no. 1 (1992): 57–98. https://doi.org/10.2307/2210475. 
• Gabriel, Dexter J. Jubilee’s Experiment : The British West Indies and American Abolitionism. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2023. https://primo.lib.umn.edu/permalink/01UMN_INST/ijl1rs/alma9980032234201701 
• Garrett-Scott, Shennette, Rebecca Cummings Richardson, and Venita Dillard-Allen. “’When Peace Come’: Teaching the Significance of Juneteenth.” Black History Bulletin 76, no. 2 (2013): 19–25. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24759690. 
• Gordon-Reed, Annette. On Juneteenth. First edition. New York, NY ; Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2021.
• Gravely, William B. “The Dialectic of Double-Consciousness in Black American Freedom Celebrations, 1808–1863.” Journal of Negro History 67, no. 4 (1982): 302-317. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2717532. 
• Green, William D. Degrees of Freedom: The Origins of Civil Rights in Minnesota, 1865-1912. University of Minnesota Press, 2015. https://www-jstor-org.ezp3.lib.umn.edu/stable/10.5749/j.ctt14jxw1k  (especially chapter 4 “The Sons of Freedom,” ch 7 “A Certain Class of Citizens”)
• Guelzo, Allen C. “How Abe Lincoln Lost the Black Vote: Lincoln and Emancipation in the African American Mind.” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 25, no. 1 (2004): 1–22. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20149052. 
• Haynes, Sam W, and Cary D Wintz. Major Problems in Texas History: Documents and Essays. Houghton Mifflin Co, 2002. (especially chapters 8 and 9)
• LaRue, Paul. “Emancipation Day.” Black History Bulletin 75, no. 2 (2012): 20–23. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24759673. 
• Kachun, Mitch. Festivals of Freedom: Memory and Meaning in African American Emancipation Celebrations, 1808–1915. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2003.
• Kachun, Mitch. “Antebellum African Americans, Public Commemoration, and the Haitian Revolution: A Problem of Historical Mythmaking.” Journal of the Early Republic 26, no. 2 (2006): 249–73. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30043409. 
• Kerr-Ritchie, J.R. Rites of August First: Emancipation Day in the Black Atlantic World. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007.
• O’Donovan, Susan. “Freedom’s Revolutions: Rethinking Emancipation and Its History.” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 72, no. 4 (2013): 245–54. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43825501. 
• Price, Richard. Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas. 3rd ed. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
• Rugemer, Edward Bartlett. Slave Law and the Politics of Resistance in the Early Atlantic World. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2018. https://www-jstor-org.ezp1.lib.umn.edu/stable/j.ctvckq569 (especially the prologue)
• Manjapra, Kris. Black Ghost of Empire : The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation. New York: Scribner, 2022. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umn/detail.action?docID=6930762 
• Schwalm, Leslie A.  Emancipation’s Diaspora Race and Reconstruction in the Upper Midwest. 1st ed. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009. (especially chapter 7 “‘Agonizing Groans of Mothers’ and ‘Slave-Scarred Veterans’: History, Commemoration, and Memoir in the Aftermath of Slavery”)
• Schwartz, Barry. “Collective Memory and History: How Abraham Lincoln Became a Symbol of Racial Equality.” Sociological Quarterly 38, no. 3 (1997): 469-496. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4121155.
• Selassie, W Gabriel. “The Walls Have Fallen: Emancipation Days in Black California.” California History 99, no. 1 (2022): 73–93.
• Sharples, Jason T. The World That Fear Made : Slave Revolts and Conspiracy Scares in Early America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv16t6gbd.9 (especially ch 6 and the epilogue)
• White, Shane. “‘It Was a Proud Day’: African Americans, Festivals, and Parades in the North, 1741-1834.” The Journal of American History 81, no. 1 (1994): 13–50. https://doi.org/10.2307/2080992. 
• Wiggins Jr., William H. O Freedom! Afro-American Emancipation Celebrations. Chattanooga: University of Tennessee Press, 1990.