104 Fun Facts About Juneteenth

Before the name Juneteenth caught on, which of these did Texas freedmen call their June 19 commemoration?

Jubilee Day was among the earliest names for the June 19 commemoration, first held in 1866; in the Bible, a jubilee is the year when the enslaved are set free.

Many of the Union soldiers in Galveston when freedom was announced in June 1865 belonged to which Black regiments?

US Colored Troops, the Black regiments the Union began raising in 1863, were among the soldiers who occupied Galveston and enforced the order across Texas.

Black regiments that reached Galveston in June 1865 had helped capture which Southern city two months earlier?

Richmond, the Confederate capital, fell to Union forces that included Black regiments; days later some of the same men stood at Appomattox for the surrender, and by June they were in Texas.

Which Confederate general surrendered 71 days before freedom was announced in Galveston?

Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox with Black Union regiments among the troops on the field; weeks later some of those same soldiers landed at Galveston.

Juneteenth became a federal holiday a year after nationwide protests over whose killing?

George Floyd was killed in May 2020, and in the protests that followed, states and big companies began making Juneteenth a paid holiday; Congress acted the next June.

Which U.S. President signed the bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday?

Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth holiday bill in June 2021 and, at the ceremony, got down on one knee to greet veteran campaigner Opal Lee.

Before Juneteenth, what was the most recent federal holiday established in the United States?

MLK Day, honouring Martin Luther King Jr., was the last federal holiday created before Juneteenth; Stevie Wonder's 1980 song Happy Birthday was written to rally support for it.

Juneteenth is also celebrated each year by descendants of Black Seminoles in a village in which country?

Mexico's village of Nacimiento, in Coahuila, was settled in 1852 by Black Seminoles escaping slavery in the United States; their descendants, the Mascogos, still gather there every June 19.

Which Confederate leader was captured in Georgia nearly six weeks before Juneteenth?

Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, was caught near Irwinville, Georgia, by Union cavalry while fleeing with his wife, and was then imprisoned at Fort Monroe.

Why was the Emancipation Proclamation so slow to free enslaved people in Texas?

Few Union troops were present to enforce it: freedom spread only as the federal army advanced, and some Texas slaveholders hid the news until after the harvest.

Four days after Juneteenth, the last Confederate general surrendered: Stand Watie, a leader of which Native nation?

Cherokee leader Stand Watie laid down his arms on June 23, 1865, in what is now Oklahoma; he had commanded Native troops for the South and was its last general to give up.

The first Juneteenth celebrations, from 1866, were mainly organized around what type of gatherings?

Church-centered events came first, built around prayer services; by the 1920s and 1930s the celebrations had grown more commercial, often centred on food.

Which Union general's January 1865 field order set aside confiscated coastal land for freed families in forty-acre plots?

William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order No. 15 in January 1865, the origin of 'forty acres and a mule'; the new president overturned it that autumn and the land went back to planters.

After the Emancipation Proclamation, which abolitionist wrote the recruiting call 'Men of Color to Arms!'?

Frederick Douglass urged Black men to enlist, arguing that no one could deny a man his rights once he had fought in uniform; two of his own sons joined the war effort.

Which major event in American history led to the spread of Juneteenth celebrations beyond Texas?

The Great Migration carried Juneteenth out of Texas: families heading west took the celebration to Los Angeles, Oakland and Seattle.

Like Juneteenth, which federal holiday always falls on a fixed calendar date?

Veterans Day is fixed on November 11, the day the fighting stopped in the First World War; Congress shifted it to an October Monday from 1971, then returned it to its date in 1978.

Which soda is traditionally served at Juneteenth celebrations?

Strawberry soda is the classic Juneteenth drink; its colour is said to stand for resilience and for the blood shed by enslaved ancestors.

Which president signed the last federal holiday before Juneteenth into law?

Ronald Reagan signed that holiday into law in November 1983, after campaigners gathered six million signatures on a petition to Congress.

Which of these was a pastime of early Juneteenth celebrations, alongside baseball and fishing?

Rodeos, baseball and fishing filled early Juneteenth gatherings, often held out in the country beside rivers and creeks, which suited fishing and riding.

Which of these phrases is sometimes used to describe Juneteenth's significance for Black Americans?

America's second Independence Day is a common description of Juneteenth; from the earliest years, its celebrations featured public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Emancipation Proclamation helped keep which European power from backing the South?

Britain had weighed supporting the South, as had France, but once the war was openly about slavery, opinion at home made siding with the South untenable.

Early Juneteenth celebrations were characterized by elaborate large meals and people wearing what?

Freed people dressed in their best clothing for early Juneteenth gatherings, alongside elaborate meals and pilgrimages to Galveston, where the announcement was first made.

Slavery outlasted both Juneteenth and the 13th Amendment in which US territory, ending under treaties signed in 1866?

Indian Territory's slaveholding nations had sided with the South, and it took new treaties with the United States in 1866 to free the several thousand people they still held.

Which drink with West African roots is a traditional part of Juneteenth celebrations?

Hibiscus tea, known in Senegal as bissap, is a Juneteenth staple; the plant crossed the Atlantic with enslaved Africans and took root in the Caribbean, where the drink is called sorrel.

General Order No. 3 said former masters and slaves would relate as whom?

The order declared the connection between former masters and slaves 'becomes that between employer and hired labor', told freedmen to stay home and work for wages, and warned against idleness.

Which of these states still allowed slavery after Juneteenth, until the 13th Amendment was ratified later that year?

Delaware's legislature rejected the 13th Amendment in February 1865, so slavery stayed legal there until the amendment took effect late that year; the state itself did not ratify until 1901.

In the early 20th century, which of these contributed to a decline in Juneteenth celebrations?

The Great Depression pushed many Black families off farms and into cities, where employers were reluctant to give June 19 off unless it fell on a weekend.

In 1968 the SCLC made June 19 the 'Solidarity Day' of which protest?

The Poor People's Campaign, led by Ralph Abernathy after its planner was assassinated that April, held its Solidarity Day rally in Washington on June 19, 1968.

What does the arc on the Juneteenth flag represent?

A new horizon is what the arc stands for, a sign of the opportunities and promise lying ahead for Black Americans after emancipation.

The Emancipation Proclamation primarily applied to enslaved people in which areas?

Confederate states in rebellion were its only target; slavery in the loyal border states was left untouched until state laws or the 13th Amendment ended it.

What genre of music is often featured in Juneteenth commemorations?

Blues festivals have been a part of Juneteenth remembrance, alongside other forms of public entertainment and music.

What outdoor-cooked meal is a common feature of Juneteenth celebrations?

Barbecue is the centrepiece of most Juneteenth celebrations; tending the pit lets families share the smells and tastes their newly freed ancestors knew at the first gatherings.

In 1936 a major Juneteenth celebration took place at the Texas Centennial Exposition, held in which city?

Dallas hosted the Texas Centennial Exposition at Fair Park, where the Hall of Negro Life was dedicated on June 19, 1936; the hall was torn down after the fair closed.

Which Texas park, opened for Juneteenth in 1898, honours that era's best-known Black educator?

Booker T. Washington Park near Mexia, also known as Comanche Crossing, drew tens of thousands to its Juneteenth celebrations; the local Juneteenth association bought the grounds.

Cut off after Vicksburg fell, the last big Confederate army had held which region?

West of the Mississippi lay the command of General Edmund Kirby Smith, one of the last Confederates still in the field; after surrendering, he fled abroad to avoid prosecution for treason.

Early Juneteenth celebrations in Texas were also used to give newly freed people what?

Voting instructions were handed out at the first big Juneteenth gatherings, which doubled as political rallies teaching freed people about their new voting rights.

Which Wisconsin senator blocked the Juneteenth holiday bill in 2020 before relenting in 2021?

Ron Johnson objected in 2020 to the cost of another paid day off for federal workers and proposed dropping an existing holiday in exchange; he gave way in June 2021.

By what name is the night of December 31, 1862, when Black congregations awaited the Emancipation Proclamation, remembered?

Freedom's Eve saw Black congregations gather to wait for midnight and the proclamation; the Watch Night services they held became a lasting New Year's Eve tradition in Black churches.

The Emancipation Proclamation was slow to take hold in Texas partly because, within the Confederacy, it was what?

The most remote state of the Confederacy, Texas drew slaveholders from further east who marched enslaved people there to escape the fighting, so slavery grew during the war.

What is the full official name of the federal holiday observed on June 19th?

Juneteenth National Independence Day is the name written into federal law in 2021; Texas's own 1980 state holiday is officially called Emancipation Day in Texas.

Juneteenth was first celebrated in Austin in 1867 under the direction of which federal agency?

The Freedmen's Bureau oversaw Austin's first Juneteenth in 1867; across the South its agents also set up schools for freed people and helped reunite families separated by slavery.

Which cake is a traditional dessert at Juneteenth celebrations?

Red velvet cake is a Juneteenth favourite; its colour is said to honour the blood shed by enslaved ancestors and their resilience.

Alongside slavery, the 13th Amendment's opening clause also prohibits what?

Involuntary servitude is barred alongside slavery in Section 1; Congress lifted the pairing almost word for word from the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.

The Juneteenth flag uses which colour scheme?

The Juneteenth flag is red, white and blue, a deliberate echo of the US flag asserting that the people it honours were, and are, Americans.

The 'grandmother of Juneteenth' walked 2.5 miles each year to represent what?

Opal Lee's 2.5-mile walks stand for the years freedom was delayed: the two and a half years between the Emancipation Proclamation and its enforcement in Texas on June 19, 1865.

What shape sits at the centre of the Juneteenth flag?

A five-pointed star sits at the flag's centre, a nod both to the Lone Star State, where the order was read, and to freedom across all fifty states.

June 19, 2021 fell on a Saturday, so federal workers got which day off instead?

The Friday before, June 18: the bill became law only on the Thursday, so most federal workers got the day off at less than a day's notice.

What did the president hand the 'grandmother of Juneteenth' as the 2021 holiday became law?

The first pen he used to sign the bill went to Opal Lee, the retired Texas teacher who had walked and petitioned for years to see the day made a national holiday.

Roughly how many people were still enslaved in Texas when freedom was announced there in 1865?

About 250,000 people were enslaved in Texas in June 1865, and many heard the news only months later, as some slaveholders held it back until after the harvest.

Which honour did the 'grandmother of Juneteenth' receive in May 2024?

Opal Lee received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in May 2024, honoured for a campaign in which she led symbolic walks in city after city on her way to Washington.

Why did Black Texans buy their own land for Juneteenth in the 1870s?

Bans from public parks pushed celebrations to the edge of town, so in 1872 Houston's Black leaders raised money for ten acres of their own: today's Emancipation Park.

By the end of the Civil War, roughly how many Black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union?

About 200,000 Black men, roughly 179,000 soldiers and 19,000 sailors, served the Union after the Emancipation Proclamation opened the way for their enlistment.

Which Pulitzer-winning historian of Jefferson's Monticello published the 2021 essay collection On Juneteenth?

Annette Gordon-Reed won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in History for The Hemingses of Monticello; in On Juneteenth she set the holiday's story beside memories of her own Texas childhood.

Which exception does the 13th Amendment's ban on slavery allow?

As punishment for a crime: Southern states soon exploited the loophole through convict leasing, renting out mostly Black prisoners to plantations, railroads and mines.

The 14th Amendment, ratified three years after Juneteenth, guaranteed formerly enslaved people what?

Citizenship came with the 14th Amendment in 1868: it made people born on US soil citizens, overturning the Dred Scott ruling that Black Americans could never be citizens.

The Juneteenth flag was hoisted in 2000 at Roxbury Heritage State Park, in which city?

Boston is where activist Ben Haith, nicknamed 'Boston Ben', conceived the flag in 1997, far from the Texas coast where the holiday began; illustrator Lisa Jeanne Graf drew the final design.

What name is given to the era from 1865 to 1877, when freed people first voted and held office in the South?

Reconstruction ended in 1877, when President Rutherford B. Hayes withdrew the last federal troops protecting Republican state governments in the South and Democrats took over those that remained.

Which federal holiday comes immediately before Juneteenth in the calendar year?

Memorial Day, on the last Monday in May, is the federal holiday just before June 19; Flag Day falls in between, on June 14, but is not a federal day off.

At 89, the 'grandmother of Juneteenth' set out in 2016 to walk to Washington from her home in which Texas city?

Fort Worth is where Opal Lee began the walk in 2016, hoping to reach the capital before President Obama left office and to win backing for a national Juneteenth day.

What command did Gordon Granger hold when he issued the Galveston freedom order in June 1865?

The District of Texas was his command, named in the order's own records; he held it for under two months before another general replaced him that August.

Union headquarters in Galveston, which issued General Order No. 3, stood in the Osterman Building on which street?

The Strand, at 22nd Street, is where the long-gone Osterman Building stood; legend moved the scene to the Ashton Villa mansion, but no evidence supports that.

Which chamber of Congress passed the 2021 Juneteenth holiday bill unanimously?

The Senate approved the bill by unanimous consent, and the House followed a day later with some dissent; it became law within days, in time for that year's June 19.

Which state was the last to recognize Juneteenth as an annual state holiday or observance?

South Dakota was the last holdout: Governor Kristi Noem had proclaimed the day for 2020 only, and permanent annual recognition came in February 2022.

Which state became the 49th to recognize Juneteenth, on June 16, 2021?

Hawaii's governor signed the bill only hours before the US House passed the federal holiday, leaving a single state without any Juneteenth observance.

Which sitcom's 2017 Juneteenth episode had musical numbers by The Roots and Aloe Blacc?

Black-ish opened its fourth season with the musical episode: upset by a school play celebrating Columbus Day, Dre enlists Aloe Blacc at work to write a song promoting Juneteenth.

Galveston's Juneteenth mural takes its title from which phrase in General Order No. 3?

Absolute Equality quotes the order's promise of 'an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property'; its next lines advised freed people to stay at their present homes.

Which Secretary of State countersigned the Emancipation Proclamation with Lincoln?

William H. Seward added his signature as Secretary of State; months earlier he was among the advisers who urged Lincoln to hold the proclamation back until the Union won a battle.

Gordon Granger is best remembered militarily for his role in which 1863 battle?

Chickamauga made his name: without waiting for orders he marched his reserve corps toward the sound of the guns, and the counterattack saved the Union army from disaster.

Which abolitionist guided an 1863 Union gunboat raid in South Carolina that freed over 700 people?

Harriet Tubman had scouted the Combahee River with a network of local contacts before the raid; many of the men freed that night went on to join the Union army.

Gordon Granger's troops besieged the forts of Mobile Bay in 1864 alongside which admiral, famed for 'Damn the torpedoes'?

David Farragut took his fleet through the mined channel while the army landed to besiege Forts Gaines and Morgan, both of which surrendered that August.

What happened to Opal Lee's family home on June 19, 1939?

A white mob burned it down soon after her parents bought the house in a mostly white neighbourhood; Lee, then twelve, recalls the crowd dragging out the family's furniture and setting it alight too.

Roughly how many signatures did Opal Lee's Change.org holiday petition gather?

1.6 million signatures backed the petition in the end; it had passed one million by late June 2020, as that summer's protests pushed Juneteenth into the national spotlight.

Opal Lee earned her teaching degree at which Texas school, portrayed in the film The Great Debaters?

Wiley College awarded her degree in 1952; its 1935 debate team beat the reigning national champions, the story Denzel Washington filmed, and the school is now Wiley University.

Which seceded state was omitted from the Emancipation Proclamation due to its Union-run government?

Tennessee was left off the list because a Union military government already ran it from Nashville; the state went on to abolish slavery itself before the war ended.

Under what authority did Lincoln say he issued the Emancipation Proclamation?

His war powers: Lincoln invoked his role 'as Commander-in-Chief' and called it 'a fit and necessary war measure', a wartime footing that led him to press for a constitutional amendment to end slavery for good.

Which singer released the song Black Parade on Juneteenth 2020?

Beyoncé released Black Parade on June 19, 2020, as protests against racism swept the country, and directed its proceeds to her BeyGOOD fund for Black-owned small businesses.

Which state, Lincoln's political home, became the first to ratify the 13th Amendment in February 1865?

Illinois ratified on February 1, 1865, the day after Congress passed the amendment and the same day Lincoln put his own signature on the resolution sending it to the states.

Which state ratified the 13th Amendment in 1995 but only certified it in 2013?

Mississippi's legislature ratified in 1995 but never sent the paperwork to the Federal Register until 2013, completing ratification by every state that existed in 1865.

Which director's 2016 documentary 13th takes its title from the amendment that abolished slavery?

Ava DuVernay made the film for Netflix, arguing that systems of racial control outlived slavery itself; it won a Peabody Award.

Which institution holds the original handwritten General Order No. 3, first shared online in June 2020?

The National Archives keeps the order in an Army record book in Washington; staff digitised and publicised it for the 2020 anniversary, 155 years after it was written.

Which pirate ran Galveston Island as a privateering colony he named Campeche?

Jean Lafitte took over the island in 1817 and named his colony Campeche; he sailed away only after the US government moved to shut it down.

The 1900 Galveston hurricane holds what grim distinction in US history?

The deadliest natural disaster in US history killed at least 6,000 people; Galveston answered by building a seawall and pumping in sand to raise the whole city's ground level.

Which Christian founder introduced Watch Night services to the English-speaking world?

John Wesley took the late-night vigil from the Moravians and held it near each full moon, a time for Methodists to renew their covenant with God.

Washington, D.C.'s Emancipation Day holiday each April sometimes delays which national date?

Tax Day moves when the District's holiday, which marks the 1862 law that freed its enslaved residents, lands on or beside April 15; in 2023 returns were due on April 18.

The 1862 act freeing Washington, D.C.'s enslaved people paid up to $300 each to whom?

Loyal owners could claim up to $300 for each person freed, while the freed themselves were offered up to $100, and only if they agreed to leave the country.

Florida's Emancipation Day marks May 20, 1865, when a general read the proclamation in which city?

Tallahassee heard Edward McCook read the Emancipation Proclamation at a house that is now a museum; Union forces had failed to take the city in battle and entered it only after the Confederate surrender.

By tradition, Tennessee's August 8 holiday marks which future president freeing his slaves?

Andrew Johnson is said to have freed his household's slaves on that date in 1863; Sam, one of the men he freed, is credited with starting the yearly celebration in their hometown of Greeneville.

Who wrote the lyrics of 'Lift Every Voice and Sing', often sung at Juneteenth events?

James Weldon Johnson wrote the words in 1900 and his brother J. Rosamond Johnson set them to music; the NAACP later adopted it as the 'Negro national anthem'.

'Lift Every Voice and Sing' was first performed in 1900, for Lincoln's birthday, by whom?

Schoolchildren, 500 of them, performed it at the segregated Florida school where its lyricist was principal; the pupils kept singing it, and those who became teachers taught it to children of their own.

The Civil War's last land battle, weeks before Juneteenth, was fought on the Rio Grande near which Texas city?

Brownsville lay a few miles from Palmito Ranch, where the two sides fought on May 12 and 13, 1865, more than a month after the main Confederate army had surrendered, as both commanders knew.

Which side won the Battle of Palmito Ranch in May 1865?

The Confederacy won the field under Colonel John 'Rip' Ford, driving back a Union column, yet the victory changed nothing: the Confederate forces in Texas surrendered within weeks.

In which city was a 2020 Trump campaign rally pushed back a day after its original Juneteenth date drew criticism?

Tulsa was a doubly charged choice: the city's Greenwood district was the site of a 1921 massacre of Black residents, so the campaign moved the rally from June 19 to June 20.

At which festival did Miss Juneteenth premiere in January 2020?

Sundance hosted the premiere in January 2020; with cinemas uncertain in the pandemic, the distributor aimed the digital release at June 19, the holiday's 155th anniversary.

In the 2020 film Miss Juneteenth, what prize does the pageant offer its winner?

A full HBCU scholarship is the prize; single mother Turquoise, a past winner, pushes her reluctant 15-year-old daughter Kai to compete.

Which series' 2016 episode 'Juneteenth' sends Earn and Van to an awkward party at a wealthy couple's home?

Atlanta's first-season episode was directed by Janicza Bravo and written by Stefani Robinson; the hostess's white husband, fascinated by Black culture, makes the party steadily more uncomfortable.

Lincoln held back his draft Emancipation Proclamation in summer 1862 until which battle gave the Union a victory?

Antietam turned back the Confederate invasion of Maryland; five days later Lincoln announced the preliminary proclamation he had held since reading a draft to his cabinet that July.

The Union general who ran the 1865 federal agency for freed people helped found which university, named for him?

Howard University, opened in 1867, was named for Oliver Otis Howard, one of its founders; he went on to serve as the school's president while still running the agency.

Which Texas governor was removed in 1861 for refusing a Confederate oath of allegiance?

Sam Houston, the victor of San Jacinto, refused the oath and was removed in March 1861; he had warned Texans that civil war would end in a Northern victory.

Which Texas congresswoman introduced the 2021 Juneteenth holiday bill in the House?

Sheila Jackson Lee sponsored the House bill and had championed the holiday for years, though the text that became law was the companion bill from the other chamber, which the House then passed.

The Emancipation Proclamation opened the army to Black recruits such as the 54th Infantry of the film Glory, raised by which state?

Massachusetts governor John Andrew began forming the 54th within weeks of the proclamation; the state had too few Black residents to fill it, so recruiters signed up men from across the North and Canada.

Ralph Ellison began the novel that became Juneteenth after the success of which 1952 book?

Invisible Man won the 1953 National Book Award; Ellison then spent four decades on a second novel, leaving more than 2,000 unfinished pages when he died in 1994.

Which holiday joined New Year's Day, Independence Day and Christmas as the first four federal holidays in 1870?

Thanksgiving completed the 1870 list, which at first covered only federal workers in Washington, D.C., so that their days off would match those of the surrounding states.

Which financial exchanges close for Juneteenth?

The NYSE and Nasdaq both halt trading for the day, and because the Federal Reserve observes Juneteenth as a banking holiday, most big banks shut their branches too.

Which US territory's Emancipation Day, March 22, marks the abolition of slavery there in 1873?

Puerto Rico was still a Spanish colony when Spain's parliament abolished slavery there on March 22, 1873, though the law bound the freed to work under contract for three more years.