Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, is an opportunity to reflect on the past, celebrate Black freedom, and look toward the future.

“When we celebrate holidays like Juneteenth, we are honoring this country’s true history. We are talking about some of the hard conversations — some of the uncomfortable truths — about what it has meant to be a Black American in this country,” said Delaware State Senator Marie Pinkney, an Africana studies graduate student at the University of Delaware. “And that is so important. It is important that we take the stories of Black Americans out of the margins and the sidelines and make them main topics in our nation’s history.”

Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States that commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. On June 19, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger told enslaved men, women and children in Galveston, Texas, that they were free and that the Civil War had ended.

The 159-year-old holiday is a reminder that the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863, did not liberate all enslaved Black people in the Confederate States and that Texas enslavers refused to adhere to life without slavery as mandated by the Union until federal troops arrived to enforce the Proclamation.

President Joe Biden signed into law on June 17, 2021, the “Juneteenth National Independence Day Act,” designating Juneteenth as a legal public holiday. Since then, the holiday’s reach has been expanded to encourage all Americans to celebrate Black freedom and educate themselves on the complex history of Black liberation and ongoing struggles for justice and equality.

UD is observing Juneteenth on Wednesday, June 19, with classes suspended and offices closed.