Juneteenth (a combination of June nineteenth) celebrates the day in 1865 when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to free the state’s some 250,000 enslaved people. Despite the Emancipation Proclamation being signed over 2 years prior, slavery had continued in Texas because it lacked a strong Union presence to enforce emancipation. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865, when General Granger arrived in Texas with Union troops — including many who were Black and formerly enslaved — that people in Te