HOUGHTON — Sunday, June 19, Juneteenth, is a federally recognized holiday .

According to Federal Times, Juneteenth is also known as National Independence Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Black Independence Day and Juneteenth Independence Day. Federal Times notes that it is now a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, observed annually.

Most federal employees will receive the following Monday as a day off of work.

Junteenth, short for June 19th, became a federal holiday when it was signed into law on June 17, 2021. The holiday has a history that dates back to end of the American Civil War.

On June 19, 1865, federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people were freed, History.com states. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. Federaltimes.com says that the day has been celebrated annually around the country since 1865.

Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, on April 9, 1865, which many consider the end of the Civil War. But it was not. It ended hostilities in the Eastern Theater of War. Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston was still trying to save his army from Gen. William T. Sherman’s advancing force, when on April 14, Johnston learned that Lee had surrendered.

While Johnston and Sherman were negotiating surrender terms in North Carolina, more than 8,000 of Johnston’s army deserted. Johnston then surrendered his army to Sherman on April 26, 1865.

His soldiers were to stack their arms at Greensboro, North Carolina, and go home, while Johnston had to sign a statement saying he would never again take up arms against the United States. This completed the second largest surrender of Confederate soldiers.

The Civil War, however, did not officially end during the summer of 1865. With Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, the Confederate capital, Richmond was left with no defensive military force.

The Confederate government simply disintegrated and ceased to exist. While various Confederate military forces surrendered over a period of time, the central government representing the 11 Confederate states never did surrender, because without military protection, it simply went out of existence. Technically, the war, considered a rebellion in the North, did not end until a proclamation by President Andrew Johnson was issued on Aug. 20, 1866.

On Jan. 1 1863, Union President Abraham Lincoln expanded the goals of the rebellion from simply preserving the Union to include ending slavery when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. However, the proclamation was limited in affect, because it only declared the freedom of enslaved people in the regions of the Confederacy the Union Army had not yet taken and occupied.

History.com says that “in reality, the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t instantly free any enslaved people. The proclamation only applied to places under Confederate control and not to slave-holding border states or rebel areas already under Union control. However, as Northern troops advanced into the Confederate South, many enslaved people fled behind Union lines.”

By the fall 1863, many enslaved people in much of the eastern Confederacy had already been freed by Union military advances, as history.com notes. Other regions within the Confederacy had not been majorly impacted by the war, including much of Texas until Granger arrived in Galveston and issued General Order No. 3, declaring all enslaved people in Texas to be free.

While the order took some time to spread and enforce, its date of enactment was significant, marking the legal end of slavery in the Confederacy, says federaltimes.com. The constitutionally enacted end of slavery in the United States did not come until Dec. 6, 1865, with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The 13th Amendment states that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

Granger’s order, as issued, reads:

“The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property, between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them, become that between employer and hired labor.

“The freed are advised to remain at their present homes, and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”

Texas was the first state to codify the date into law in 1980 and was the only state to have the day as a paid holiday for state employees in 2020. Since then, at least eight states — New York, Maine, Louisiana, Virginia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Washington and Illinois — followed.

The celebrations that followed the reading of the proclamation by Gen. Granger began a tradition that has lasted for over 155 years and today is hosted in cities across America and beyond, states junteenth.com.

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States, states the website.

“Juneteenth commemorates African-American freedom and emphasizes education and achievement,” states the junteenth.com. “It is a day, a week, and in some areas, a month, marked with celebrations, guest speakers, picnics and family gatherings. It is a time for reflection and rejoicing. It is a time for assessment, self-improvement and for planning the future. Its growing popularity signifies a level of maturity and dignity in America long over due. In cities across the country, people of all races, nationalities and religions are joining hands to truthfully acknowledge a period in our history that shaped and continues to influence our society today. Sensitized to the conditions and experiences of others, only then can we make significant and lasting improvements in our society.”

While the 13th Amendment forever banned slavery in the United States, it was ratified by the Senate on Dec. 6, 1865. Gen. Granger’s order was issued six months previous, which is why June 19th, and not Dec. 6, is the day that has been long recognized as the day slavery was ended in the U.S.