June 19, 1865 - Granger's General Orders #3 (Juneteenth)

June 19, 1865

Maj. General Gordon Granger's General Orders, Number 3

Galveston, TX

Here's Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on "What is Juneteenth?" Among other things he points out:

* "by the time Granger assumed command of the Department of Texas, 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."

* While that date did not actually mark the unequivocal end of slavery, even in Texas, and emancipation has been celebrated on other dates, June 19 came to be a day of shared commemoration across the United States – created, preserved, and spread by ordinary African Americans – of slavery's wartime demise.

* OK, so I haven't made it to Texas yet; here's Baltimore's Juneteenth Memorial from the University of Baltimore

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=219629