North Dakota
North Dakota & Minnesota celebrate Juneteenth
Emancipation Day celebration, June 19, 1900 held in “East Woods” on East 24th Street in Austin, Texas (Credit: Austin History Center)
WASHINGTON D.C. – Today we honor Juneteenth a federal holiday.
June 19, 1865, is when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, about two-and-a-half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation declared slaves in the Southern states to be free.
Parade in Richmond, Virginia for Emancipation Day, April 3, 1905. Source: Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries
Minnesota Senator Tina Smith says it is an “opportunity to celebrate and commemorate our history and also to also keep us on that path to more fairness for everybody in this country,” Smith says. “It’s an exciting and momentous day and I’m really pleased to help this get over the finish line,” Smith adds.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum says he “encourages North Dakotans to observe this commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States and celebrate the ideals of liberty, justice, and equality for all citizens.”
North Dakota Congressman Kelly Armstrong posted on his social media saying, “The abolition of slavery in the United States should be remembered and celebrated. Happy Juneteenth.”
Emancipation Proclamation (Source: National Archives)
Juneteenth is the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established in 1983.