Juneteenth, June 19th

This date was made a federal holiday in 2021, 156 years since Abraham Lincoln signed the second Emancipation Proclamation which officially ended slavery in the United States.

After the first Emancipation in 1863 which freed all slaves in states and areas supporting slavery, many slave owners moved their plantations to non-rebelling states, Texas being the largest state. On June 19, 1865, Lincoln signed the second proclamation especially to destroy slavery in Texas.

In his past, Abraham Lincoln lived in middle-class racially mixed neighborhood of Springfield, Illinois, one of his long-time neighbors, Jameson Jenkins (who may have been born a slave), had come from North Carolina and was publicly implicated in the 1850s as a Springfield conductor on the Underground Railroad, sheltering fugitive slaves.

In 1861, President-elect Lincoln called on Jenkins to give him a ride to the train depot, where Lincoln delivered his farewell address before leaving Springfield for the last time.(Illinois history)

Much history between that day and April 15, 1865 when Lincoln was assassinated.