"Now, Henceforward, and Forever Free" - National Center for Lesbian Rights

Juneteenth commemorates the anniversary of Union General Gordon Granger’s belated announcement of freedom from slavery in Texas on June 19th, 1865, delivered over two years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. In directing Confederate states to “recognize and maintain the freedom” of formerly enslaved Black Americans, and to refrain from repressing “any efforts they […]