Today is Juneteenth, a federal holiday recognizing the end of slavery in the United States. Many government offices and services are closed in observance.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced that all enslaved people were free—more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Tom Bartholomew with Black History Preservation Project-Knox County says the date is widely considered the moment when freedom was finally extended to all enslaved Americans.

“To put that in perspective, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863 and declared that enslaved people in the Confederate states would be free,” Bartholomew said. “But the Civil War didn’t end until April 1865. So Juneteenth actually happened after the end of the Civil War.”

Bartholomew also notes that the legal push for freedom began much earlier in Indiana, including Knox County, where local court petitions played a key role.

Knox County’s public celebration will take place Saturday, June 28, at the McGrady-Brockman House in Vincennes. “Celebrate Freedom Day” will feature music, historical talks, garden tours, and food, including a Haitian cooking demonstration and barbecue from a well-known tri-state vendor.

The event is organized by the local Black History Preservation Project, which has spent the past three years researching and sharing the region’s African American history through documents dating back to the late 1700s.

There is more information on the latest episode of First City Focus