Juneteenth: Celebrating the path to freedom

Danny Federico  reporter3.riverbendnews@gmail.com “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” – Desmond Tutu Known as one of America's oldest holidays, Juneteenth (June 19) annually celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. According to Juneteenth.com, the celebration originated in Galveston, Texas, when Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, arrived on June 19, 1865, with "news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free." Although President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation two years prior, on Jan. 1, 1863, it had little impact on Texans due to the "minimal number of Union troops to enforc