Nine days before the nation commemorates Juneteenth, communities across America are preparing to mark the holiday that traces its origins to a single military order delivered in a Texas port city 160 years ago.
From North Carolina's Triangle region to Chicago's university campuses, events scheduled for June 19 will celebrate the day when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and issued General Order No. 3, formally freeing more than 250,000 enslaved people in the state.
In Cary, North Carolina, a Juneteenth celebration featuring historian Darrell Stover will run from 3 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, June 21, at Downtown Cary Park1. The University of Illinois at Chicago is offering free admission to its Sustainability Research + Innovation conference's Juneteenth programming, which includes performances by the Grammy Award-winning Soul Children of Chicago choir2.
Federal and state offices will close nationwide on June 19, marking the fourth year since Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 202134. The U.S. Postal Service will suspend regular operations, though Holiday Premium Priority Mail Express and Holiday Same Day Package Delivery will continue3.
General Order No. 3, dated June 19, 1865, declared: "The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free"1234. The order established "absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves"14.
The announcement came two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863567. Texas, remote from Union forces and serving as a refuge for slaveholders fleeing the Civil War, had remained largely beyond federal enforcement67. News of emancipation had reached Texas through newspapers, but lacked military backing until Granger's arrival with approximately 2,000 Union troops89.
The newly freed Texans coined the term "Juneteenth," combining June and nineteenth1. For more than 150 years, the date was celebrated primarily within African American communities before gaining national recognition23.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture now calls Juneteenth "our country's second independence day," though it notes the holiday "remains largely unknown to most Americans"2. In 2025, the National Juneteenth Museum opened in Fort Worth, Texas, spearheaded by activist Opal Lee, known as the "Grandmother of Juneteenth"3.
"It is a time for reflection and rejoicing. It is a time for assessment, self-improvement and for planning the future," according to Juneteenth World Wide Celebration2.
