What Is Juneteenth? Are There Any Juneteenth Events In Oklahoma In 2024?

June 19th is a holiday known as Juneteenth.

It’s a celebration of the ending of slavery in the United States, starting in 1865 when the U.S. Army freed 250,000 slaves in Texas in the final days of the Civil War.

Known as General Order No. 3, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued the following on June 19, 1865:

“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 becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly 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."

This was over two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which was enacted on January 1, 1863. That date didn’t end slavery for everyone, especially in the Confederate states.

The Union army still had to enforce the proclamation and even as the Civil War raged on until General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, Confederate holdouts continued moving away from the Union Army, evading the proclamation, and landing in Texas. (Cimitile, 2023)

But, according to worldhistory.org, General Order 3 did not end slavery in the United States. Slavery was officially abolished by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution on December 6, 1865. General Order 3 was explicitly for the people of Texas, not the country.

Even then, with a lack of modern communications, the word of General Order 3 was not widely distributed immediately.

Since 2021, it’s been a national holiday. But before that, the prominence of the day slowly grew nationwide. Texas was the first state to make it a state holiday in 1980, over 100 years after the festivities began.

President Biden signed the legislation to make Juneteenth a federal holiday after nationwide protests in 2020 after police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

“One of my proudest actions as President has been signing the bipartisan law establishing Juneteenth as the first new Federal holiday since the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday nearly four decades ago. On this Juneteenth Day of Observance, we commemorate America’s dedication to the cause of freedom,” said President Joe Biden in 2023 ahead of the holiday. On June 19, 1865 — months after the Civil War ended and more than 2 years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing enslaved people — Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to free 250,000 people still held in bondage. The arrival of Major General Gordon Granger and his troops signaled that the Federal Government would not relent until the last enslaved people in America were free."

You can read President Biden's full proclamation from 2023 HERE.

Oklahoma (1994), Florida (1991) and Minnesota (1996) were the first states outside of Texas to commemorate Juneteenth as a day of observance in the 1990s, according to Pew Research Center.

What Events Celebrate Juneteenth In Oklahoma?

1. Tulsa Juneteenth Festival: June 13-15
2. OKC Juneteenth On The East: June 14-15
3. Stillwater's Juneteenth Picnic 2024: June 15 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
4. OKC Juneteenth Music and Arts Festival: June 14-15
5. Norman Juneteenth Festival: June 19