“On June 19, 1865 — two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and two months after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox — the Union Army’s Maj. General Gordon Granger reached Galveston, Texas. There, he read aloud General Orders No. 3: ‘The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.'” It took a long time for the freedom message to get to Galveston. And it’s taken a long time for the importance of Juneteenth to fully enter the American consciousness. Today, it seems to have finally arrived. Time: Activists Are Pushing to Make Juneteenth a National Holiday. Here’s the History Behind Their Fight.

+ Vox: Juneteenth, explained.