This Friday, for the first time, @meyermt will close to honor#Juneteenth, a celebration marking the 155th anniversary of the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Black Americans in the United States were declared free. (1/23) 
President Abraham Lincoln issued the first draft of the #EmancipationProclamation in 1862, but news traveled slowly across Confederate states even after the end of the Civil War in April 1865. Texans learned of the proclamation 30 months after the original announcement. (2/23)
Gen. Gordon Granger delivered the news in #Galveston 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.”(3/23)
By the time of Granger’s announcement, the Confederate capital in Richmond had fallen, the “Executive” to whom he referred, President Lincoln, was dead and the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery was well on its way to ratification. (4/23)
The 13th Ammendment was a moral reckoning, a correction to the Constitution’s silence on slavery: "(n)either slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States." (5/23)
But the day of June 19, 1865, also known as #FreedomDay and #JubileeDay, became a date memorialized by formerly enslaved Black Americans to celebrate resilience in the face of brutal tyranny. (6/23) texasmonthly.com/bbq/juneteenth…
#Juneteenth celebrations included prayer services, inspirational speeches, readings of the #EmancipationProclamation, storytelling, food, games & dances. Black Texans took the holiday with them as they traveled—and what started as a local celebration became a national one. (7/23)
Jubilant spirituals sung by Black people celebrated freedom: “Free at last, free at last/I thank God I'm free at last/Free at last, free at last/I thank God I'm free at last.” Here, the @blindboys performed the song for President @BarackObama. (8/23)
Along with the U.S. winning independence from 🇬🇧, the eradication of American slavery marks the most significant event in American history. But most Americans remained—and remain—unaware of its celebration by Black Americans. (9/23) When did you learn about #Juneteenth?
A century after Lincoln issued the #EmancipationProclamation, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave what would become one of the most iconic speeches in American history on the proclamation’s unfulfilled promise: “We must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.” (10/23)
At the end of #MLK’s speech, delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963, he harkened back to that jubilant spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last!/Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" (11/23)
To celebrate #Juneteenth is to celebrate the promise of freedom won but still not fully achieved. Don’t take our word on it, take it from @benandjerrys. (12/23) tinyurl.com/emancipationic…
Although #Juneteenth has been informally celebrated each year since 1865, it wasn’t until 1980 that Texas became the first state to proclaim it as an official state holiday. (13/23)
Since then, 46 states and the District of Columbia, have commemorated or observed #Juneteenth: New Hampshire was the most recent to do so, in 2019. (14/23)
On June 26, 2001, Oregon declared #Juneteenth to be a statewide celebration. (15/23)
It was a big deal—but not big enough to make it into the summary of legislation approved during the 2001 #orleg. See Senate Joint Resolution 31, declaring “June 19 of each year, to be a day for celebration statewide of the dignity and freedom of all citizens.” 🤦🏻♂️ (16/23)
There are a ton of resources about #Juneteenth, from children’s books to websites to oral histories. Let your friend Google lead you to them. Start with this “School House Rock”-like clip from @black_ishABC.(18/23)
Check out this interactive page on #Juneteenth. (19/23) arcgis.com/apps/MapJourna…
We also love the book “#Juneteenth,” by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and Drew Nelson (20/23)
On Friday, a major motion picture, @Juneteenthmovie, will be released, starring @NikkiBeharie @kendrick38. Director @cgpeoples, a native of #FortWorth, was riveted by the annual Miss #Juneteenth pageants she attended as a child. (21/23)
Rep. @JacksonLeeTX18 (D-Texas) plans to introduce a bill to make #Juneteenth a federal holiday. At this moment, when attention has turned to white supremacy and its manifestations in policies and political actions that are anti-black, anti-democratic and anti-human. (22/23)
We. Are. There. For. It. (23/23)
