Juneteenth

June 19, or Juneteenth, is a new federal holiday codifying an observation which has taken place annually for over a century. On June 19, 1865 US federal troops finally began the occupation of Texas, the final state of the rebellious Confederate states to be occupied. One of the earliest orders of business was the public reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been issued nearly two and a half years earlier, but obviously the proclamation had no effect in areas not responding to US law. Juneteenth represents the de jure end of slavery in the former Confederacy, although enforcement took some time.

In recent years, a second commemoration has become a part of many Juneteenth observances. Specifically, an observance to remember “those who chose the sea", who leapt overboard rather than accept life as a slave, has been instituted. It is intended as a refutation of “Lost Cause" revisionism which holds that slaves happily accepted their fate.