Today is Juneteenth, the oldest celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger arrived at the port of Galveston, Texas with a contingent of United States Colored Troops and issued General Order No. 3 which announced that “all slaves are free.”
Freedom for Texas’ 250,000 slaves came two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on Jan. 1, 1863.
I’ll celebrate the occasion at the Independence Seaport Museum where the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection will hold its annual Juneteenth program. Charles L. Blockson, founder of the collection, spearheaded the effort to recognize that Penn’s Landing was the arrival point for captured Africans in Philadelphia. At today’s event, he will discuss the Pennsylvania slave trade and its influence throughout the nation.
Check out the National Museum of African American History and Culture's historical legacy of Juneteenth.
