A version of this editorial has been published in previous years.
As the Civil War continued, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation — effective Jan. 1, 1863 — making it clear to Confederate states fighting to keep slavery that enslaved people “shall be free.”
Though famous since that day, the proclamation was really a wartime measure that only applied to slaves in rebel states under arms, not a total end to slavery. It was rather specific, designating which counties and parishes the proclamation would cover. “I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free,” Lincoln wrote. Elsewhere in the proclamation, the president made it clear that non-Union Confederate states were the areas being targeted. That included Louisiana, but 13 parishes were exempt from the proclamation: Ascension, Assumption, Jefferson, Lafourche, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John, St. Mary, St. Martin, Terrebonne, and “Orleans, including the City of New Orleans.”
Slavery was not fully abolished until the 13th Amendment was passed by Congress on Jan. 31, 1865, then ratified on Dec. 6, 1865. Still, Lincoln's proclamation sent an important signal, albeit one that was slow to spread.
There was no nightly news, no internet and certainly no social media to quickly and widely share the breaking news that the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed and slavery had ended.
It took more than two years — until June 19, 1865 — for enslaved people in Galveston Bay to learn that they were among the 250,000 in Texas and 4 million nationally who were freed by order of the president.
Enslaved people who were freed celebrated, starting a Texas tradition that eventually spread to other states across the nation. “June” and “19th” were combined to create “Juneteenth.”
In 2021, President Joe Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday and Louisiana made it a state holiday. Today Juneteenth is recognized as a holiday, observance or remembrance in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
There's been some confusion about Juneteenth this year because June 19 falls on a Wednesday. Traditionally, Juneteenth has been observed on the third Saturday of June, making it possible for more people to celebrate while off from work. The federal holiday is June 19. Last month, Gov. Jeff Landry designated June 19 as the official state holiday. Federal, state and local offices will be closed, as will most banks.
Opal Lee, recognized as the grandmother of Juneteenth because she started a national effort to create the federal holiday when she was 86 years old, grew up less than an hour away from Shreveport in Marshall, Texas, before moving to the Fort Worth area.
"Juneteenth means freedom, and I mean for everybody," Lee told CBS News in 2022.
We agree, and urge everybody to celebrate the holiday — and to honor and safeguard the freedoms that were, for many Americans, much too belatedly won.