Juneteenth commemorates the date when the enslaved people in Texas learned of their freedom by the enactment and enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas. June 19, 1865.

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln, declared that all slaves in the Confederate states would be freed.  It did not apply to Texas as they were one of several states not under Union control at the time. It only applied to the Confederate states under Union control. States under Confederate control, such as Texas, did not comply because they did not recognize the authority of the Union government.

The Emancipation Proclamation also did not apply to Union states. Slaves in Union states were not freed until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment.

The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified by Congress on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery, except as criminal punishment, in the United States..